ECYCLE
>RE PAPERs
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When we recycle wastepaper instead of
throwing it away, we help conserve re-
sources and protect the environment in
several ways:
1 »The wastepaper is turned into a
useful and necessary resource —raw ma-
terial for new paper and paper products.
Wastepaper thus takes the place of virgin
wood pulp, and this helps lessen the heavy
demand on our forests.
•When paper is made from waste-
paper rather than from virgin pulp, the
manufacturing process is likely to cause
less pollution of water and air, and less
solid waste. Also, less energy is required.
•(Recycling cuts down on the
amount of waste that has to be disposed
of by our municipal systems. Paper
makes up nearly a third of municipal solid
waste by weight and well over half by
volume.
Solid waste disposal is a most
serious problem for cities today. Many of
them are running out of land area that
can be used for disposal purposes. More-
over, improper disposal methods, like the
common open dump and conventional
incineration, cause pollution of water and
air and blight neighborhoods. Through
ENVIRONMENTAL TROTECTTOfl
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sanitary landfilling, wastes can be dis-
posed of on land without causing pollu-
tion when effective methods of site selec-
tion, design, and operation are followed.
But with the shortage of land, the high
cost of hauling waste over long distances
to new sites, and the increasing amounts
of waste produced, sanitary landfilling
is not always possible. In addition it
makes little sense to bury materials that
still have a useful value. Reducing waste
at its very source and diverting waste
back to useful purposes —these are clear-
ly the preferable means of "disposal."
The amount of paper that is
diverted back to useful purposes —re-
cycled—is growing, but rather slowly:
11 million tons were recycled in 1972,
compared with 9 million in 1962. In con-
trast, there has been enormous growth
in the total amount of paper we are using.
In 1972, we used 64 million tons, 50 per-
cent more than in 1962.
Much of this
increase is due to the
greater amounts of
packaging being put
around the products
we buy. U.S. con-
sumption of paper
packaging material
rose by 67 percent
between 1958 and
1971. Nearly half the
paper we now use is
in the form of pack-
aging.
Some wastepaper is not recyclable
because of the way it is combined with
other materials, or treated, or used; but
the amount recycled could be greatly in-
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Some of the organizations that can give
you more information about paper re-
cycling are:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Solid Waste Management
Programs
Washington, D.C. 20460
Forest Products Laboratory
U.S. Department of Agriculture
P.O. Box 5130
Madison, Wisconsin 53705
American Paper Institute
260 Madison Avenue
Mew York, New York 10016
League of Women Voters of the U.S.
1730 M Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
National Center for Resource
Recovery, Inc.
1211 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
National Association of Recycling
Industries, Inc.
330 Madison Avenue,
New York, New York 10017
Bay Area Recycling Project
1050 Mills Tower Building
San Francisco, California 94104
Environmental Action
1346 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Room 731
Washington, D.C. 20003
U0773
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Support recycling projects in your com-
munity. Speak up at town meetings, PTA
meetings, and at social gatherings. Talk
to your neighbors. Write to your local
newspaper citing problems in your town's
solid waste management system and
point out the advantages of using re-
cycled paper and where it can be pur-
chased. Join an environmental organiza-
tion; group action is often more effective
than individual action.
Write to your local government,
State government, or Member of Con-
gress, asking about present solid waste
laws, what legislative action is being
taken to encourage recycling, and where
the officials personally stand on these
matters. Contact reclamation centers,
scrap dealers, and refuse collection con-
tractors in your town to find out what
can be done to increase paper recycling.
All of these actions will help to
make you and your community more
informed about paper recycling. As with
other environmental problems, you are
not powerless. As a consumer, house-
holder, citizen, student, teacher, and em-
ployee, you can make a difference.
An environmental protection
publication (SW-143)
in the solid waste management series
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creased if more users, paper manufac-
turers, and solid waste management
systems were oriented toward doing it.
For the papermaking industry,
geared mainly to the use of virgin fiber,
a shift to using more wastepaper involves
large-scale changes. Changes would also
be called for in the solid waste manage-
ment practices followed by most com-
munities—to allow for separate collec-
tion of old newspapers, for example.
There are many things that you —a
consumer, householder, citizen, student,
teacher, and employee —can do to in-
crease paper recycling.
THE FIRST STEP
If wastepaper is to become an important
raw material, there must be a demand for
the finished product: recycled paper. Paper
companies will make recycled paper if
they are sure they can sell it profitably.
This will happen only when individual
consumers and bulkusers begin demand-
ing and buying recycled paper.
You should be aware, however, that
the recycled paper you buy may be made
from material other than paper recovered
from users ("postconsumer waste"). The
term "recycled paper" is applied also to
paper made from wood chips, sawdust,
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waste from the papermaking process,
and similar materials. This kind of recy-
cling is valuable in helping to conserve re-
sources, but the main lack is in recycling
of postconsumer waste —that is where
the greatest potential lies for making
headway in solid waste reduction and in
conservation.
AS A CONSUMER
AND
HOUSEHOLDER
START ASKING QUESTIONS:
N^i ^(Inquire about the availability of
recycled paper in the grocery, drug, or
stationery store. Paper towels, napkins,
bags, tissue, writing paper, art construc-
tion paper, and greeting cards are fre-
quently made from recycled fiber. Buy
them and encourage your friends to buy
them. Look for the product with the
highest percentage of reclaimed fiber.
> _ ?Askyour telephone company, gas
company, power company, or any other
large company if it is using recycled paper
for billings and notices.
1 :: ?]Find out if your bank is using
recycled paper. Point out that many do —
including Bank of America, Chase Man-
hattan, Wells Fargo, Marine Midlands,
and First National Bank of America.
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•£ Find out how your organization
disposes of its used office paper. Waste-
paper dealers and paper companies are
sometimes looking for places where
large quantities of wastepaper accumu-
late; they may be interested in your or-
ganization's office paper.
•X- Look for ways to save paper.
Talk over your ideas with your employer.
You may be able to establish new prac-
tices, like making fewer copies of letters,
using both sides of the sheet, or keeping
a box in each office where odd pieces of
paper or paper printed on one side could
be placed for use as scratch paper. Paper
costs are rising; paper-saving measures
should be welcome.
•£ Write for information on paper
recycling and circulate it among your
fellow employees.
•X- Encourage your company, if it
is large enough, to provide a staff and
facilities for an environmental program.
In all of your roles, you have the oppor-
tunity to help the environment. So —why
not today? —get involved in paper re-
cycling. Buy recycled paper products
and encourage others to do the same.
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lists,or public officials in to discuss paper
recycling.
["L^IniGather clippings, pamphlets,
and books related to recycling for an
environmental section in the library.
I ~ f aTake the students on field trips
to paper companies, de-inking or re-
processing plants, and solid waste dis-
posal sites.
[ ~ ~'j3 Start the students working on
posters and art projects; show them
films on recycling.
! n.Get more information about
paper and build a lesson around it. Paper-
making and recycling encompass a wide
variety of topics — including forestry,
methods of pulping wood, solid waste
management, and economics.
AS AN
EMPLOYEE
I :; ^^-i Ask your employer if he uses re-
cycled paper. If he doesn't, point out that
recycled paper is often comparable in
quality and price to paper made from
new fibers. Using recycled paper will
certainly benefit the environment —not
to mention his company's public image.
,' -3f Find out if corrugated cartons
used by your company are being re-
cycled or if new ones are made of re-
cycled fibers. If not, point out that cor-
rugated boxes can often be resold to
paper companies or wastepaper dealers.
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? Ask corporations in which you
are a shareholder to print annual reports,
brochures, and catalogs on recycled
paper. Many corporations are already
doing this — including RCA, Texaco,
Coca-Cola, Consolidated Edison, and
AT&T.
? Encourage these heavy users to
buy recycled paper —that's one sure way
of increasing the amount of recycled
paper produced.
$ Buy carefully; avoid overpack-
aged items and minimize use of dispos-
able products, especially if they're not
made from recycled paper.
$ Buy in bulk when possible —it's
often cheaper and cuts down on pack-
aging.
$ Don't accept paper bags or boxes
if you don't need them.
$ If a nearby recycling center or
wastepaper dealer is currently accept-
ing old newspapers, save yours and turn
them in. (Newspapers may not be ac-
cepted if the demand from paper plants
happens to be low.)
$ Get the most out of every piece
of paper — write on both sides of sta-
tionery, cut up scraps to use as note pads,
use paper towels more than once, and
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save paper bags—use them for garbage,
to wrap packages for mailing, as litter
bags in your car, or take them back to
the grocery store for refilling. Save and
reuse gift-wrapping paper, too.
ASA
CITIZEN
t _- "&1 When you come upon what seems
to be a clear case of overpackaging, write
to the manufacturer asking if all the pack-
aging is really necessary for safety, con-
venience, or sales appeal; give the reasons
forjrour concern.
! & If buyers for old newspapers can
be found, your city should consider separ-
ate collection of newspapers. You might
find out what has been done to explore
and follow up the possibilities. Careful
planning, especially in securing guaran-
teed markets for the paper and obtaining
maximum participation from residents,
is essential for a successful program.
L Jj| If newspapers are collected separ-
ately in your community, make note of
the schedule of pickups, save your papers,
bundle them up, and put them out as re-
quested.
j^rUse recycling centers in your
area. If there aren't any, you may want to
consider getting a group of people to-
gether to start one. It isn't a simple ven-
ture, but with community support, it can
be done. &ViRfflfeW{& I?o^tl8^ir
Region V, Library
23© South Dearbo'ro Street
Chicago, Illinois 6060H
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mental Action Coalition, 235 E. 49th St.,
New York, New York 10017, for information
on how to set up neighborhood recycling
centers.
ASA
STUDENT
+ Ask for recycled writing paper,
paper towels, construction paper, and
typing paper.
+ Organize a study group on paper
recycling, and propose specific action
that might be taken in your school sys-
tem and town. Introduce a recycling pro-
ject to an existing student group.
+ Encourage teachers to present
more information on recycling in the
classroom.
+ Pass the word about recycling to
your parents.
ASA
TEACHER
SCHOOL
ADMINIS-
TRATOR
D Writeto manufacturers and local
distributors about recycled paper —and
start switching to it.
D Invite foresters, environmenta-
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