The interest in utilization of non wood and recycled fibres to substitute or complement wood fibres is mainly focused on raw material for pulp and paper and panels industries, as their production exerts the greatest pressure on wood fibre resources of the world. Interestingly, both paper and panels were first produced from non wood fibres, the former out of rags and grass in the 1st Century A.D. and the latter from waste paper, about 100 years ago. In course of time, both products became so overwhelmingly dependent on wood that they emerged as the dominant wood based industries world over. With wood resources dwindling, even as demand for paper and panels is increasing, attention is gaining momentum on the vast and varied non wood fibre sources and also recycled fibre.
In India, which is a wood deficit country, utilization of non wood fibre for paper manufacture is based on decades of research and development and the non wood raw materials presently used is, perhaps, the most diverse in the world. Almost all of them have been tested for panels production also and found technically feasible. But, for reasons which will be discussed elsewhere in this report, their utilization for the manufacture of panels has not been significant.
In the first section which will follow, the raw material scenario in respect of pulp and paper as well as panels industries will be examined in the light of anticipated growth of these products and the magnitude of gap in supply and demand of raw materials will be explained, based on assessments made from time to time by various stake holders. The strategies and policy interventions to meet the raw material requirement will be described and finally the context in which utilization of non wood and recycled fibres is developing will be discussed.
In the second section, the current situation with regard to non wood and recycled fibre utilization will be discussed. Each of the major non wood fibre sources in India will be dealt with separately and its potential analysed in the context of availability, competing uses and constraints technical and socio-economic, if any.
The third section will present the likely scenario of non wood and recycled fibre utilization in the year 2010 based on present trends and policies.
