古紙利用における製紙産業の在り方を考える: '紙は紙に還そう'を進めるための新たな提言

摘要

The Japanese papermaking industry has survived until today by dealing with and overcoming the various problems wrought by the great environmental changes in recent years. Although each problem has been appropriately solved thanks to the Japanese papermaking industry's and companies' efforts, we have to make a paradigm shift in thinking for the sustainable development of the Japanese papermaking industry in the future. There are major impact factors to be dealt with, specifically those such as the further development of globalization due to the growth of developing countries, the spread of the digital media and the Internet, and paper demand decline due to aging and declining population. However, another important theme is how we should deal with waste paper as a raw materia! in the future. Securing raw materials is a primary basic condition for sustainable development of material industries, and it is also a matter that is greatly related to the survival of these industries. However, the corollary is pulp material and waste paper in the papermaking industry. Waste paper has especially raised its position as a main raw material for the Japanese papermaking industry. However, the industry now faces many challenges at the same time and its future development has become uncertain without solving the problems. I was in a position to make use of waste paper in a papermaking company for along time. After retirement Ilaunched a study group to support the waste paper recovery movement and have promoted a variety of activities until now. In this paper I make recommendations about the future vision of the new paper industry by recapturing the future of waste paper which has become a main raw material for the paper industry, based on such experiences. Although this paper is my private opinion, I am happy if it serves as some kind of references for the upcoming generation in relation to the papermaking industry.%近年，わが国の製紙産業は大きな環境変化のなかでさまざまな対応を迫られ，それを乗り越えながら今日まで存続してきた.折々の課題に対する業界の取組みや各社による企業努力の賜と言えるが，これからもわが国の製紙産業が持続的発展を果たしていくには大きな発想の転換が迫られているように思う.具体的には新興国台頭などによる更なるグローバリゼーションの進展や，デジタル媒体およびインターネットの普及，少子高齢化·人口減少などによる紙需要減退といった大きな影響要因があるが，もう1つの重要なテーマとして製紙原料の古紙に対し今後どのように取り組んでいくのかも見逃せないものとなっている.