Expert: Paper recycling lags in U.S.

By John Green

“…Opportunities for improving recycling efforts for virtually all paper products abound, but the challenge, said Grogan, is in recognizing the payoff.

The reasons for recycling paper are numerous, Grogan said. Doing so reduces the cost of manufacturing new paper products, saves forests, reduces carbon emissions by 3 tons for every ton of paper recycled, and saves substantial landfill space. And paper fiber can usually be recycled up to eight
times. …

…It’s estimated, Grogan said, that about 14 million tons of paper used each year in the U.S. can’t be recycled because it’s in the form of tissue, are products like ceiling tiles or are containers that are contaminated by food products, such as pizza boxes.

Another 30 million to 35 million tons that can be captured, however – worth an estimated $2.5 billion to $3 billion annually – is instead going into landfills…”

Remember, 50% of landfill waste is paper or wood products, and a lot of that could be recycled. Click
here to tell Paper packaging companies to stop destroying endangered forests for packaging products that end up in our landfills, and to increase the post-consumer recycled content in the paper they sell.