Volume 6, Number 3
Sep 1993

Paper Recycling

Recycled Paper News for May reports that the U.S. Forest Service is predicting that the recovery rate of paper for recycling will reach 48% by 2000 and 57% by 2040. It was 28% in 1986. (The recovery rate, simply put, is the amount of paper recovered and used, as a percentage of the total of all paper used in the U.S. Recovered paper is considered to be "used" whether it is used domestically or exported. The total of all paper used includes paper imported for use.)

The recycling rate is lower than the recovery rate. It is expected to reach 37% by 2000 and 45% by 2040. It was 30% in 1992. (The recycling rate is the amount of recovered paper consumed in domestic mills, divided by total amount these mills produce.)

These predictions are from an update of the Forest Service's RPA Assessment of the Forest and Rangeland Situation in the United States. (rpa=Renewable Resources Planning Act.) The report predicts an increase in prices for recovered paper, and elimination of the current market glut.

• Andover International Associates, in Danvers, Massachusetts, has published a multiclient market report on office waste paper (OWP) over the next five years. It predicts a radical change from oversupply to tight supply. The report costs $950 for one copy and $100 for each additional copy.
• "Sorted office paper" has just been defined by the Paper Stock Institute in its new guidelines for buying and selling recovered paper:

Dry, baled papers as typically generated by offices, containing primarily white and colored groundwood-free paper, free of unbleached fiber. This grade may include a small percentage of groundwood computer printout and facsimile paper. Up to 2% prohibitive materials are allowed. Outthrows may not exceed 5%.

("Prohibitive materials" are contaminants that may make the paper unusable or damage the equipment; "outthrows" are papers unsuitable for consumption in the grade specified.)