E-Commerce Growth Boosts Demand for Packaging Paper

Osman Kaytan, Director General of the Waste Paper Recycling Industrialists Association (AGED), said, "The surge in e-commerce traffic during the pandemic dramatically increased demand for packaging, creating an environment where the sector could make new investments. While many sectors experienced stagnation during the pandemic, the paper sector made new investments, created employment and continued its growth trajectory. The pandemic period demonstrated how critical packaging is. The surge in e-commerce traffic during the pandemic dramatically increased demand for packaging, creating an environment where the sector could make new investments." Kaytan noted that the amount of waste paper collected in Turkey stands at 3 million tonnes and falls short of the paper sector's 5 million tonne production capacity, adding that the paper industry can only achieve export-led growth by importing waste paper, its raw material. Stating that restricting imports is currently the biggest obstacle to the sector's development, Kaytan continued: "The limited import of waste paper, whose export is unrestricted, causes existing investments to operate inefficiently. For the paper sector, which is an employment gateway for hundreds of thousands of people, to become one of the world's major production hubs over the next 5 years, the incentive mechanism in recycling must function properly. Today in Turkey, there is a system where collection from households is insufficient, and recovery activities are carried out primarily through shopping malls, supermarkets and street collectors." Source: www.aa.com.tr