Eleven million tonnes of waste are produced yearly by the European pulp and paper industry, of which 70% originates from the production

of deinked recycled paper. Wastes are very diverse in composition and consist of rejects, different types of sludges and ashes in

mills having on-site incineration treatment. The production of pulp and paper from virgin pulp generates less waste but the waste has

similar properties to waste from the production of deinked pulp, although with less inorganics. Due to legislation and increased taxes,

landfills are quickly being eliminated as a final destination for wastes in Europe, and incineration with energy recovery is becoming the

main waste recovery method. Other options such as pyrolysis, gasification, land spreading, composting and reuse as building material are

being applied, although research is still needed for optimization of the processes. Due to the large volumes of waste generated, the high

moisture content of the waste and the changing waste composition as a result of process conditions, recovery methods are usually expensive

and their environmental impact is still uncertain. For this reason, it is necessary to continue research on different applications of

wastes, while taking into account the environmental and economic factors of these waste treatments.