NEWSPAPER RECYCLING REACHES ALL-TIME HIGH

City employees Robert Reed, left, and Bill Lesar unloaded newspapers from a collection truck at the city's recycling center.

Fewer and fewer old newspapers are headed for landfills as Americans recycle record amounts of newsprint.

In 1995, Americans recycled 63 percent of all old newspapers, an all-time high representing 8.1 million tons of newsprint.

This is National Newspaper Recycling Week, a time set aside to encourage recycling of yesterday's newspaper.

Newsprint is among the most recycled material in the country, higher nationally than aluminum, plastic and glass, and surpassed only by cardboard.

In Cape Girardeau newspapers are the top recyclable material collected, said Pam Sander, solid waste coordinator for the city of Cape Girardeau.

Some 57 percent of all recyclable materials collected in the city is newsprint. Cardboard represents 24 percent, plastic, 9 percent, magazines 4 percent, tin 4 percent and aluminum, 2 percent.

"In general our citizens really are doing a good job," Sander said.

Once items are collected, the city sells recyclable items by the ton to collection and processing centers, which in turn send the items to be remade or reused. The process of sending recyclables to the next step is called marketing.

In July 1995, the city marketed 46.25 tons of newsprint. Sander said that a year ago, the city was selling newsprint for $150 a ton. "This year it is zero," she said. "That's what has happened to the market. It has gotten so saturated."

Residents continue to recycle newsprint and in turn the city will continue to send the newspapers to recycling centers.

"We will continue to recycle even if we have to pay to market them," Sander said.

Cities are mandated to lower volume in landfills. Recycling is one of the best ways, she said.

Newspapers are probably the easiest product for residents to recycle. "They just put it in a bag or bundle it," she explained. "With plastic or glass, you have to rinse it and separate it."

Newsprint is also one of the easiest products to re-use. According to the Newspaper Association of America, 35.7 percent of recycled newspaper goes into the production of new newsprint. Newspapers are also recycled into products like cereal boxes, egg cartons, pencil barrels, grocery bags, tissue paper and paper board.

Old newspapers are also exported. In 1994, the United States exported 800,000 tons of old newsprint to Canada, primarily for the production of new newsprint.

John Renaud, production manger for the Southeast Missourian, said the newspaper takes steps to be part of the recycling solution.

The company purchased a machine to bail scrap newspaper from the printing plant. All scrap newsprint is bailed and sold to a recycling distributor. The newspaper bails about 250 tons a year.

In the past, the company made as much as $180 a ton selling scrap newsprint. But the price has dropped to about $15 a ton. Renaud said that price barely covers the cost of bailing scrap paper.

But like the city, the newspaper has made a commitment to reducing newsprint waste and will continue bailing scrap.

The Southeast Missourian also uses recycled papers to print the news. Renaud said almost all newsprint the company purchases is labeled recycled. That label can be misleading. Recycled could mean as little as 5 percent recycled content or as much as 100 percent recycled content.

In 1995, Missouri law required that over the course of the year, newspapers use at least 30 percent recycled content to print the paper.

Renaud said the Missourian used 40.4 percent recycled content in 1995.

The next step in recycling, Sander said, is for consumers to buy products using recycled materials.

"We need to close the circle," Sander said. "We need to pre-cycle by starting at the store and creating a demand for recycled paper products."

Creating a demand for recycled paper products will increase the demand for old newspapers. "The loop will close," Sander said.