| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 10:29:52 -0400 (EDT) From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Recycling paper (K Workman)
May 10, 1999
Dear students:
The main ingredients in paper are cellulose, water, and chemical agents. Resources involved are air, trees, water inputs and outputs and cleaning or treatment of water effluents, as well as land to grow the trees on. The steps of the recycling process have been recounted at this website many times before and should be available in the archives section. How much paper is recycled? About 41$ in 1996. Why don't more people recycle paper? Gluts in the markets, international evaporation of markets due to recessions, lacxk of programs at commercial and industrial firms. But really, paper is one of the most recycled commodities and a 40% rate of what is annually generated isn't bad. What else could be done? Create more markets, buy more recycled paper; the problem is less iin getting it produced as recycled content paper than mandating or giving really value prices at the wholesale/retail levels. Paper manufacturing firms could be required to sell recycled content paper at the cost of production pluys mar
kup, rather than the same cost as regular virgin paper plus markup. Disposal of paper in landfills and incinerators could be banned. This is not to say that these will solve a problem (which I don't think exists).
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