By Ted Fischer
November 1, 2004

"China is a big factor to the US economy when it comes to recovered paper," Dr. Stan Lancey, Chief Economist of the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) said at the MWMA Fall Summit in Lexington. The demand for US recovered paper is up 85 percent since 1997. The American Forest and Paper Association is in support of a more concerted effort to bring a higher quality of recovered paper back to the market. "In 1995, six percent of all American recovered paper was purchased and shipped to China. We are predicting that by the end of this year more then 47 percent of American recovered paper will have been shipped to China," Lancey said. AF&PA's concern is that if we don't make a concerted effort to collect more high quality office paper we will eventually run low on the amount of recovered paper we have available for US markets.

Fred Johnson, Materials Marketing Manager for SP Newsprint Company spoke about the need for finding a way to reduce the amount of contaminants within the current recycling stream. "There is bad news for the paper industry because the quality of recovered paper is declining sharply. It is currently costing the paper industry $51 million a year, due to equipment wearing thin due to glass and other contamination. We have made a concerted effort to work with AF&PA and other organizations to push for a recycling goal of 55 percent of all paper consumed by 2012" Johnson said. He said that there is a need for a higher quality fiber for U.S. and Chinese markets. "When discussing alternative collecting efforts, cities want to keep in mind the end user when deciding on new collection programs," concluded Johnson.

Gerald Young, Recycling Coordinator for the Village of Ridgewood (NJ) also spoke about their method of fiber collection and shared the Village's best practices on curbside recycling with a focus on paper and a multiple stream recycling system. There was much discussion from the audience on the difference in cost savings between single stream recycling methods and traditional methods of collection. Audience members were interested in the competitive market between recovered and virgin paper and wanted to know if there was a major downside to single stream recycling methods. MWMA's speakers heard both pros and cons on why single stream recycling is supported or discouraged by the recycling industry.