Israeli company discovers a new way to use recycled paper and plastic

Company CEO: Pipes made out of recycled materials almost as tough as steel.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
paper 88 224 (photo credit: Courtesy)
paper 88 224
(photo credit: Courtesy)
What does one normally do with recycled paper and plastic? Usually make more paper and plastic - until now. After 10 years of experimentation, The American Israeli Paper Mills Group (AIPM; Niyar Hadera) showed off for President Shimon Peres their newest invention, pipes made of paper fibers and plastic. They are so strong, CEO Avi Brener told Peres, they are almost as tough as steel. The company's R&D department discovered what they claim is a unique bonding agent which gives the material the resilience of paper fibers and the flexibility of plastic. Peres visited the company's main plant in Hadera on Monday as part of a tour he had requested from National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of the country's water, electric and recycling industries. Peres and Ben-Eliezer toured the paper mill as well as the Rabin power plant and the site of the desalination plant under construction. The president was given in-depth briefings on the current state of the water and power industries as well as future development plans. The paper company, Israel's largest supplier and recycler of paper goods, makes the new pipes - called Cycletech - out of 60 percent to 70% recycled paper and plastic. The company uses the pipes themselves as the core for its paper rolls, each of which weighs 20 tons. AIPM, part of the IDB group, also owns the Amnir paper recycling company. At present, just 25% of paper used in the country is recycled, but Amnir hopes to raise that number to 50% - which would make Israel competitive with the developed countries of Europe. In a corporate first, Life and Environment granted it a Green Globe Award this year for its environmental efforts. Life and Environment is the umbrella organization of environmental organizations in Israel. Those efforts include: becoming the first company to switch its power station to natural gas in October 2007, which reduced pollution tremendously. They also recycle 93% of the 35 million cubic meters of water per year they use to produce the paper products. Brener told Peres they hoped to raise that number to 97% soon as a result of a new process they had just introduced. To begin with, they use just 8 million cubic meters of water per ton of paper as opposed to as much as 55 million cubic meters per ton in the US. In addition to its eco-benefits, switching to natural gas saved the company NIS 45 million per year as well, Brener told Peres. Amnir, AIPM's subsidiary, recycles 220,000 tons per year of paper and plastic: 160,000 tons of packing material, 50,000 tons of household paper and 6,000 tons of plastic. Within a year, they hope to unveil packing materials made from 100% recycled paper. In order to do so, they would have to recycle another 200,000 tons of packing material, which would drive recycling up to 50%. However, little of the plastic Israelis use gets recycled. Annual demand for plastic stands at 400,000 tons, Brener said, which means just 1.5% is recycled. They hope to increase recycling soon by 3,000 tons per year. Peres was very impressed by the company. "I had not heard about Niyar Hadera, but I was impressed, not just by its environmental activities, but by its ingenuity," he said at the end of his day-long tour.