Dr Martin Oldman - Confederation of Paper Industries

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ePolitix.com speaks to Dr Martin Oldman, director general of the Confederation of Paper Industries.

Question: Who does CPI represent?

Dr Martin Oldman: The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) is the leading organisation working on behalf of the UK's paper industries.

It was launched in January 2000, bringing together four long-established industry trade associations - the Association of Manufacturers of Soft Tissue Papers (AMSTP), the British Recovered Paper Association (BRPA), the Corrugated Packaging Association (CPA) and the Paper Federation of Great Britain (PFGB). Thus it represents the paper chain from the recovery of used paper through papermaking and conversion to distribution.

Question: What does the work of CPI involve?

Dr Martin Oldman: Our principal focus is on issues management, scrutinising proposals from UK government and the EU, analysing the potential impact of legislative change and, supported by factual data, ensuring that the industry’s position is clearly and emphatically stated in the 'corridors of power', whether in Westminster or Brussels, and in the media.

Having evolved from the classic trade association model, we retain an interest in both industrial relations (through the recently finalised national Partnership Agreement with the trade unions) and members’ skills and learning needs (through Proskills, the Sector Skills Council). Importantly, it also coordinates the industry’s strategy for improvement in health and safety throughout its various sectors.

Question: Are your messages as much local as national?

Dr Martin Oldman: Our principal audiences are the UK government and, in association with the various European trade associations with which we are affiliated, the European Commission and Parliament.

Information is also disseminated through the media and we have a comprehensive collection of fact sheets available for the public which provide an insight into the issues with which the industry is engaged. Unfortunately, there is some persistent misinformation regarding, for example, the relationship between trees, paper and sustainability that need to be corrected.

Question: Will there always be a place for paper?

Dr Martin Oldman: It is difficult to imagine a world without paper. For example, the long-heralded 'paperless office' is still a long way off and likely will never arrive; paper packaging’s excellent recovery and recycling credentials are likely to ensure its long term future; and there will surely always be a place for hygiene products.

Our challenge is to ensure that perceptions of paper’s place in a modern society are based upon its sustainability as a primary product in a market that is becoming ever more environmentally conscious. Indeed, this awareness should make our job easier.

Question: How does the CPI reconcile itself with the problem of climate change and the emphasis on going green?

Dr Martin Oldman: There really is no conflict beyond ensuring that the paper industry – and manufacturing in general – is required to pick up no more than its fair share of the obligation.

We manage a very successful Climate Change Agreement on behalf of the sector which has demonstrated that incentivising close attention to improving energy efficiency really does yield results.

Question: What is your stance on the ongoing packaging debate?

Dr Martin Oldman: At the end of its useful life, corrugated packaging can easily be recycled to make new paper products; for example, much of it goes on to make new corrugated packaging.

Where virgin (new) fibre is required, it comes from responsibly managed forests and, increasingly, only uses forest thinnings and sawmill waste.

Our statistics show that 2.3 million tonnes of corrugated packaging were collected for recycling in 2005, equivalent to an area the size of Greater London every four months. With a recycling rate of 84 per cent, corrugated has an unrivalled record. In fact, the loop is so efficient that an old box can be recycled, remade and reused in just two weeks.

Question: What are the major upcoming issues that you are facing?

Dr Martin Oldman: There are a number of major issues that are grabbing our current attention. Having suffered considerable pain in 2005, the industry remains very conscious of the criticality of both the price of energy and the security of its supply.

Also, with the recent EU determination to have renewable sources of energy contribute 20 per cent of its requirement by 2020, demand for forest biomass for energy purposes will increase. Although it could be seen as a quick-to-implement solution, it is not the most energy efficient and sustainable option in the long run and would lead to additional pressure on forests, high costs and decrease of the sector’s current global competitiveness.

It will be interesting too to see how the concept of carbon footprinting evolves and how the tremendous methodological issues that it provokes are resolved to provide a meaningful and useful metric.

And then there is China and its impact on almost everything, it seems, globalisation and competitiveness.