ECYCLE >RE PAPERs ------- 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 ------- 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- ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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, ------- 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. ------- •£ 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. ------- 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. ------- ? 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 ------- 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 ------- 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- ------- |