Kazakhstan's new paper recycling plants face risk of recovered-paper shortage

Kazakhstan is adding paper and board recycling capacity, but underdeveloped separate collection and sorting of paper waste risks leaving the new plants short of recovered fibre. The largest project, Sever-Kombinat's KZT 6.9bn plant in Kostanay, had five of seven lines in operation and is scheduled to start up in the fourth quarter of 2026, with capacity to process up to 15,000 tonnes of paper waste and 2,300 tonnes of Tetra Pak packaging a year.

Why this mattersCollection and sorting gaps could leave Kazakhstan's new recycling capacity underutilised, limiting the growth of a nascent domestic recovered-fibre supply chain.

• Sever-Kombinat's KZT 6.9bn plant in Kostanay had five of seven production lines in operation, with launch scheduled for Q4 2026
• At design capacity the plant will process up to 15,000 tonnes of paper waste and 2,300 tonnes of Tetra Pak packaging a year into corrugated board, boxes, paper and egg trays
• A paper and board project in Aktobe region is worth more than KZT 10bn; an Abay region project plans to recycle over 17,500 tonnes of paper waste a year
• The utilisation fee has funded 30 waste-management projects worth about KZT 116bn
• Kazakhstan collected 119,900 tonnes of recovered paper, board and paper waste in 2023; paper and board made up 9.4% of sorted municipal waste in 2025
• Kostanay region recycled or disposed of about 75,000 of 276,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste last year; its recycling share was 23% in H1 2026 against a 28% annual target

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