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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