According to the country's judicial decision on not collecting wastepaper to prevent the spread of corona disease and burying it, the wastepaper price seems to increase.
We had an interview with Ms. Eng. Pourdad, the honorable secretary of the Syndicate of paper and cardboard manufacturers in order to have further information on the policies of the Syndicate as follows:
Ms. Eng. Pourdad, please let us know your view on not collecting urban wastepaper which is buried in landfill sites by the municipalities.
Nowadays the main priority of the Syndicate's programs is the health of our society and people in the current conditions, and in line with the government policies on disease control, we declare that the health principles, both personal health and the work environment hygiene, are being followed in the industrial units of the Syndicate.
As our colleagues know, the people who used to work in recycling factories were always using personal safety and health care equipment. They were daily provided with safety shoes, non-penetrating gloves, masks and glasses, which is now being paid attention to with greater care and sensitivity.
However, it should be borne in mind that if the waste segregation and collection is reduced, it will cause a lot of problems for industries, and we will face a severe shortage of wastepaper and consequently a price increase.
We are trying to provide practical solution and liaise with authorities to prevent widespread reduction in collecting in different parts of the country in order to avoid creating additional problems in industries, although we still emphasize that the community health is preferred to anything. In this regard, we will try our best to prevent the unnecessary price rise of wastepaper, although we experience an increase in wastepaper price due to the shortage of domestic wastepaper.
The temporary closure of Pardis Co. will be partially offset by other companies. The company is trying to return to the production cycle as soon as possible, and we hope to see it in the next few days.
There is no doubt that these conditions are temporary, and we will overcome the crisis, too. Our partners in manufacturing companies have tried their best to increase the level of wastepaper imports and to prevent production stoppage by using their capacities and additional attempts to replace domestic wastepaper with imports.
We hope to control the rise in prices with cooperation of manufacturing units and increase in wastepaper imports.
However, the condition is in such a way that the supports of the Ministry of Industry and other relevant entities to continue the process of production and to facilitate the wastepaper imports can be effective.
Supporting industries, especially cellulose packaging industries that play a major role in delivering detergents and hygienic products required our compatriots should be addressed by authorities alongside the country's major health issues.
The Syndicate urges its dear cooperating producers to continue their process of producing packaging products along with their carton manufacturing units as their counterparts to provide the required packaging paper for them.