[Evolution of Material Metabolism in China's Pulp and Paper Industry].

The pulp and paper industry is an important industry that is closely related to national socioeconomic development. To understand the historical trends of resource consumption and environmental pollution, we conducted an economy-wide material flow analysis and quantitatively evaluated the dynamic characteristics of input-output balances, material metabolism intensity, and resource recycling rate of China's pulp and paper industry, from 2005 to 2017. The results indicate downward trends in the material inputs and outputs of China's pulp and paper industry from 2005 to 2017, with water contributing over 90% of the totals. In recent years, with the continuous optimization of the raw material structure of the paper industry, the proportion of non-wood pulping has dropped from 42% to 13% and has been replaced by mainly waste paper pulping and wood pulping. Resource consumption can still be greatly reduced. In 2017, the amount of direct material input per ton of paper and paperboard had decreased by 67% from 2005 to 26 t. The consumption of fresh water per ton of paper and paperboard dropped by approximately 69% over the study period, whereas the water recycling rate increased significantly, reaching 77% in 2017. At present, the production of paper and paperboard is increasingly dependent on the input of domestic waste paper and imported wood, the proportions of which have increased from 21% and 9% in 2005 to 60% and 31% in 2017, respectively. However, the rate of domestic waste paper recycling is relatively low, and measures such as strengthening the construction of the recycling system and educating the residents about recycling are needed to alleviate the shortage of raw materials caused by restrictions on waste paper imports.