Paper recycling is at an all-time high, but the American Forest & Paper Association is upping the ante. AF&PA is renewing its challenge to recycle more high-quality paper by announcing an aggressive 55-percent paper recovery goal. The new 55-percent goal represents an increase over today's paper recovery levels equivalent to filling 23 Empire State buildings annually with paper. This goal illustrates the paper industry's commitment to safeguarding the environment by increasing the amount of paper diverted from our nation's landfills.
The paper industry represents an outstanding success story in national recycling efforts. More paper is recovered from the municipal solid waste stream for recycling (by weight) than all other materials combined. Since 1987 paper recovery has increased 98 percent. For specific product categories, such as newsprint and corrugated containers, the numbers are at unprecedented 71 percent and 74 percent recovery levels, respectively.
The paper industry's commitment to paper recycling is well documented. AF&PA's members voluntarily established a goal to recover 40 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. by 1995. In 1995 the industry set a 50 percent recovery goal. AF&PA and its member companies, with the help of innovative and action-oriented communities across the country, achieved a 48.1 percent paper recovery rate in 2002.
More than 80 percent of paper mills in the United States use recovered paper to make many of their products, and 200 U.S. mills use recovered paper exclusively. Of the paper currently recovered in the United States, 95 percent is recycled into new paper products and the balance is used in other applications. Over the past 20 years AF&PA has made recovered paper usage an integral part of the paper and paperboard industry. More than 38 percent of all the raw material used to make new paper comes from recovered paper. In addition, the U.S. paper industry has coupled efforts to improve its recycling capabilities with initiatives aimed at improving access to recovered paper. These efforts have been increased the amount of paper kept out of the waste stream and manufactured into new products and packaging.
And yet, despite the dramatic increases in recycling, a crisis is looming. As domestic and export demand for U.S. recovered paper continues to grow, the paper industry runs the risk of seeing existing recycled paper and paperboard capacity idled due to insufficient amounts of available recovered paper. According to several studies by AF&PA, domestic demand will be squeezed by an anticipated 50-percent surge in U.S. recovered paper exports. Most of that demand will come from Asia, particularly China.
To achieve its 55 percent goal, AF&PA has developed integrated public-private sector partnerships with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Keep America Beautiful, CarrAmerica and other organizations to educate and encourage towns and cities, office buildings, schools and private citizens to recover more high-quality papers in their communities and workplaces. Recognition and encouragement of recycling efforts at all levels by the federal government and private industry will help to initiate a surge in public interest and participation in paper recovery programs.
We can't take our chances with paper recovery or the environment. AF&PA is working to ensure a reliable supply of high quality recovered paper and to 'Improve Tomorrow's Environment Today.' By increasing paper recovery, we can improve the odds that citizens, municipalities, businesses, and the paper industry will continue to be responsible stewards of our environment, strong participants in the American economy, and leaders in using all available resources in producing recycled content products.
Increasing paper recovery is critical to the future of our industry's fiber supply and paper manufacturing itself. We need to recover more paper to remain competitive and keep our mills and employees working. We need your help encouraging your own household, office building, schools and local government to do more as we move towards a maximum recovery rate. Please check out www.afandpa.org for additional information about paper recycling.
