Printed paper products clearly contribute to the circular economy. Deinking, the removal of printing inks, is a major step in their recycling process. “This revised scorecard ensures that more products can be recycled to similar quality levels as the original product. Our joint efforts prove that the paper value chain is working every day to improve on the sustainability profile of its products, responding to the latest policy developments”, says Beatrice Klose, Secretary General of Intergraf, one of the ERPC signatories.
The scorecard takes into account five parameters: luminosity, colour, cleanliness, ink elimination and filtrate darkening. Aside from editorial updates and improvements, the revised version contains updates on terminology, fibre yield and – for one product category – luminosity threshold and target as well as ink elimination target. In addition, there is now a better distinction between “Magazines” and “Low ink coverage products”, and an assessment of print products with very low ink coverage. An annex listing exemptions from testing for specific products with good deinkability properties is expected to be approved at a later stage.
The new deinking scorecard is available at: http://www.paperforrecycling.eu/publications/erpc-publications