Recycling Savings equivalent
Why is the disposal of paper in landfills a problem?
In addition to preventing the formation of methane gas in landfills, are there other reasons to recycle paper?
I’ve heard that it can cost cities and towns more to recycle than to send paper to a landfill.
Is it true that a lot of the paper we recycle in the United States gets exported to other countries?
Is it more important to recycle some types of papers than others, or should we recycle it all?
What does the term “post-consumer recycled content” mean?
Isn’t there a limit to how many times you can recycle paper?
Why is the disposal of paper in landfills a problem?
Like any organically-based substance left to decompose in landfills, paper gives off methane, a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. If you recall that discarded paper and paperboard make up about one-third of the entire waste stream in the United States, or about 85 million tons per year, it becomes clear that wasted paper can produce substantial greenhouse gas emissions over time.
In addition to preventing the formation of methane gas in landfills, are there other reasons to recycle paper?
When paper is made from recycled fiber, many negative environmental impacts are reduced across its life cycle. These include: the number of trees harvested, the energy used in pulp and paper mills, the greenhouse gas emissions from both fossil fuels and discarded paper decomposing in landfills, the volume of wastewater discharged from mills, and, finally, the solid waste generated by both the manufacturing process and end-of-life disposal.
If every U.S. household bought 25 pounds, or 5 reams, of 100% recycled copy paper each year instead of virgin fiber-based paper, here’s what the savings would be: [1]
Consumer Recycled
Paper
to about 33,485,208
trees
Or, to give another example, if every U.S. household bought just one roll of 100% recycled content toilet paper, the results would be the equivalent of preserving about 330,000 trees, saving about 106,000,000 gallons of water, and preventing about 25, 000,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
These figures make a strong argument for buying paper products with the highest recycled content possible.
I’ve heard that it can cost cities and towns more to recycle than to send paper to a landfill.
Under certain conditions, it can cost municipalities more to recycle than to discard trash. The price depends on a number of variables such as the cost of collecting and transporting waste to landfills or incinerators, the fees charged at landfills or incinerators, and the going market price for recovered paper, including for different grades of paper. Because of this last factor, a municipality may want to be sure that the more expensive printing and writing papers are sorted and sold separately, so long as that doesn’t add on extra garbage truck pick-ups which have their own economic and environmental costs.
However, overall, it is important to remember that budgetary savings are not the main reasons for recycling. In our increasingly carbon-constrained world, the larger environmental benefits need to be given considerable weight. Recycling is an easy way for us all to contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and climate change as well as to save valuable resources.
Is it true that a lot of the paper we recycle in the United States gets exported to other countries?
An increasing proportion of the recycled paper from both North America and Europe is sent to Asia, where demand for paper grew by more than 500% between 1996 and 2006.[2] In 2007 alone, China imported about 24,900,000 tons of recovered paper, of which the US supplied 44% or about 10,961,383 tons. [3]
Although it is important to have sufficient recycled paper to keep U.S. deinking and re-pulping mills operating at capacity, and even expanding their capacity, it is not a bad thing to export wastepaper to countries with less supplies of their own. Since climate change is a global problem, increasing the use of recycled paper anywhere in the world offers an important way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preserve forests. One expert has estimated that in 2006 alone the wastepaper exports to China may have saved 59.5 million tons of wood from being harvested for pulp. [4]
Is it more important to recycle some types of papers than others, or should we recycle it all?
We should maximize our recycling of all types of paper. However, it’s especially important to increase supplies of recovered paper for the higher grade printing and writing category. Although this category accounts for 27% of the paper manufactured in the U.S., overall only 6% of the fiber in these papers is recycled. In contrast, newsprint averages over 30% recycled fiber, and commercial (as opposed to residential) tissue paper averages about 45%. [5]
An important reason for this difference has to do with recycling practices. Most often, recycled paper is collected in mixed batches, meaning that higher quality papers are mixed together with lower grade newsprint or paperboard. Without adequate sorting at the material recovery facilities which process recycled waste, printing and writing papers will be “down-cycled” rather than directed to their “highest and best use” -- that is, the manufacture of more printing and writing paper. In order to encourage appropriate source separation of high quality paper, be sure to buy copy paper with the highest post-consumer recycled content available.
What does the term “post-consumer recycled content” mean?
When buying paper with recycled content, it is important to be sure that it contains at least 30% post-consumer recycled fiber -- that is, fiber recovered from paper products that have been sold on the wholesale or retail market. Paper manufacturers have always recovered and repulped their mill scraps as well as trimmings from makers of envelopes, boxes, and other specialty items. These sources are considered to be “pre-consumer.” Although they’re important to recycle into new paper to gain the kinds of savings noted above, their recovery doesn’t achieve the goal of maximizing recycling from residential, commercial, and governmental waste streams. Thus, it is important for us as consumers to ask for products which use otherwise wasted resources from what have been called our “urban forests.”
Isn’t there a limit to how many times you can recycle paper?
The number of times paper can be recycled depends upon the quality of the fiber. Poorer quality paper like newsprint has shorter fibers that will break down after 3 or 4 cycles of repulping whereas high-quality printing and writing paper may be able to be repulped up to about 10 times. [6]
Manufacturers definitely need new fiber input, but it is extremely important that this virgin fiber comes from sustainably managed forests, when the fiber is wood-based. For more on fiber from sustainably managed forests, click here. Fiber for paper can also come from other sources, some of which may offer environmental advantages. To learn more about alternative fibers, click here.
[1] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 111,617,402 households in 2006, the most recent date for which figures are available. See http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-format= . Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator available at http://www.papercalculator.org
[2] According to the AP, reprinted at http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Voracious_China_Gobbles_Up_Forests_Recycled_Paper_999.html
[3] Figures from Bureau of International Recycling reported in Recycling Bizz at http://www.recyclingbizz.com/paper_textile/LA806262.html
[4] Brian Stafford (July 2007). Environmental Aspects of China’s Papermaking Fiber Supply, p. vi for Forest Trends at http://www.forest-trends.org/documents/publications/ChinaFiberSupply.pdf and Editorial Staff (April 1, 2008). BIR Paper World Mirror March. Recycling Bizz at http://www.recyclingbizz.com/paper_textile/LA806262.html
[5] EPN, State of the Paper Industry, p.17
[6] EPN, State of the Paper Industry, p. 21