China Tightens Recycled Pulp Import Rules, Disrupting Southeast Asian Mills and Global Fibre Trade

China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) announced important new regulations tightening the importation of recycled paper pulp, an action reverberating through the Asian pulp and paper industry and the global recovered fibre trade. Under the directive, all importers must now officially declare whether imported recycled pulp has been produced using a dry or wet process. This targeted policy shift is China’s response to ongoing concerns over improper importation channels and attempts to disguise unprocessed waste paper as legally compliant pulp.

For context, recycled wet pulp is manufactured via the disintegration, cleaning, and beating of waste paper, then formed into compressed, dewatered blocks. Dry-milled pulp, however, is processed by crushing waste paper into small fragments and compressing them into dense bales, a method that generally lacks rigorous purification, disinfection, and sterilization steps.

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