Paper industry formulates positions for the Bundestag elections

"We have to explain to politicians the impact of their decisions, not only in energy and climate policy, on our industry and its 47,000 employees," explained the president of the association DIE PAPIERINDUSTRIE, Winfried Schaur. "As a basic industry, we are part of the industrial backbone of the German economy and are at the beginning of several important value chains." The paper industry is energy-intensive. Accordingly, the topics of energy and climate are at the forefront of the paper. In it, THE PAPER INDUSTRY demands:
- A secure and affordable energy supply.
- Innovative concepts to enable the climate-friendly transformation of the industry.
- Planning security for companies and regulations that continue to enable production in Germany.
- A sense of proportion in the burden on the transport sector.

Further demands in the position paper relate to raw materials policy. Here DIE PAPIERINDUSTRIE demands:
- Equal acceptance of recovered paper and pulp as raw materials.
- More product responsibility of the paper industry for the pulp cycle to increase recycling.
- Retention of separate collection of recovered paper and an end to regulatory waste properties for recovered paper.
- Ensuring sustainable forest utilization without ideologically based logging restrictions in Germany.
- Cascade utilization of wood as a raw material.
- Ensuring a functioning water supply for the industry.

The pulp and paper industry has special demands in logistics. Here, it is calling above all for an increase in the permissible total weight of trucks to 44 tons, even beyond combined transport, and for the comprehensive approval of long trucks. Both would also serve to significantly reduce emissions in transport.

"Energy and climate policy are only possible with, not without, industry," Schaur said of the paper industry's list of demands. "The paper industry in particular, with its sustainable raw materials and circular economy, is part of the solution! For this, we need reasonable political framework conditions in order to further advance the transformation via innovations and to achieve the climate targets."