Volume 3, Number 3
Aug 1990

Recycled Printing/Writing Paper

• The facts, opinions and events relating to the use of recycled fiber (especially postconsumer waste) in printing and writing paper do not yet add up to a single picture, and may never do so, because there are opposing interests, developing technologies and competing priorities involved. Here are some of those facts, opinions and events:
• Senator Wendell Ford, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, announced in June that the JCP has set new specifications that will allow the government, for the first time, to buy recycled fine paper of four kinds: copier paper, computer printer paper, stationery and printing paper. The EPA does not require copier paper or high-quality stationery to contain recycled fiber, but the JCP wants the government to be free to buy it anyhow, and it cannot buy paper of any sort unless there is a government spec for it.
• A worldwide study of recycled fiber use by Jaakko Pöyry is reported in the July Tappi Journal. Usage is expected to grow by 33% between 1988 and 1996, and by a similar amount 1996-2001. No significant use of wastepaper is foreseen in supercalendered or lightweight coated papers, which often carry ads whose image quality would be affected by the lower brightness and printability of recycled fiber. Problem with "stickies" (contaminants) will inhibit the use of recycled fiber for coated papers, and problems with brightness will tend to keep it out of uncoated (presumably uncoated printing) papers. Growth is seen, however, in "grades such as listing paper, envelope papers, and a small, environmentally conscious part of the business papers market, largely for public authorities."
• PIMA Magazine, which is now printed on recycled paper, carries in its June issue an article by Alison Kittrell, "Recycling Legislation: Take Charge, or Take the Heat," in which a number of people are interviewed on unresolved issues concerning recycled paper: recycled content (based on total weight of the paper? or on the weight of fiber?); pre- and postconsumer waste (where do you draw the line?); technological problems; pollution concerns (what do you do with the pollutants resulting from recycling of postconsumer waste?); and supply (there is currently a shortage, which is expected to ease in future years). Charles P. Klass of Klass Associates, a consulting firm in King of Prussia, Pa., says in his interview here that if EPA is trying to free up landfill space, they really missed the boat by not requiring postconsumer waste in printing and writing paper. Judy Usherson says EPA's requirements were made liberal on purpose, because there is not enough high-quality fiber from postconsumer waste at present . Both Mr. Klass and Jerry Daly of Black Clawson (an equipment manufacturer) say that the technology exists for getting high quality deinked fiber from postconsumer waste. Mr. Daly says he expects new equipment will utilize it. Judy Usherson says there is some question about how consumers will respond to office paper made with postconsumer waste in large amounts. [Note: None of these people gave any indication that they included permanence in their definition of quality. -Ed.]
• Alan Davis, founder and president of Conservatree Paper Company, is interviewed in an article in the June PIMA Magazine, "If You're not Buying Recycled Products, You're not Recycling." (Mr. Davis sells recycled printing/writing paper.) He complains that there is very little recycled printing and writing paper on the market, and what is on the market contains only about 5% secondary fiber, as opposed to 20%. in other grades of paper. He feels this is because of an inherent bias towards virgin pulp. "You can control the tree," he is quoted as saying. "You can make paper easier--not better--easier." He says the alternative to recycling is incineration, which is what he is battling. [Actually, there are four, not two, main approaches to solving the landfill problem and saving resources: 1) Reduction in use of nonessential items, 2) Reuse of things like beverage containers, 3) Recycling to make new products, and 4) Burning to generate energy, Wherever this can be done safely. This does not include promising approaches like municipal composting, described in the July/August issue of Garbage. The Practical Journal for the Environment (PO Box 56519, Boulder, CO 80322-6519).]
• Doug Dugal, President of Integrated Paper Services, spoke at a joint Lake States TAPPI/North Central PIMA meeting in March in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on the effect of recycling on fibers. There is a limit, he said, to the ultimate quality one can achieve in secondary fibers. The key problem facing tomorrow's pulp and papermakers will be finding a way to take a lower-quality fiber and turn it into a higher value-added product.
• Simon B. Green, former commercial hand-papermaker and now chairman of the Institute of Paper Conservation in England, wrote to ASTM Subcommittee D06.40 on Recycled Paper in June, saying that the IPC supported the increasing trend toward recycling, but was also aware of the possible impact it may have on the permanence of paper artefacts as a result of the chemicals and techniques used. The IPC is aware that many government departments are specifying recycled papers, and would not like to see recycled-paper legislation making it too difficult for government departments to use paper of adequate longevity where it is needed. Longevity and recycled content are not incompatible.
• The Walgren Amendment to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (APA, Oct. 1989, P. 41-42) did not pass this year. No sponsors could be found in the Senate, and the American Library Association, which does most of the lobbying for paper permanence, had too much else on its plate to give it the attention it deserved. Perhaps it will be reintroduced. It would have required that paper bought for government printing and writing purposes adhere to voluntary consensus standards (e.g., ASTM or ANSI) for important items, and it would have encouraged government use of alkaline paper. Rep. Doug Walgren's assistant Christine Wegman is handling this.