Environmental Impact of Recycling in the Paper Industry, 1993 Environmental Conference Proceedings

As the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) continues to increase, the capacity to handle it is rapidly decreasing. Many landfills and combustors have closed, and new disposal facilities are often difficult to site. Identifying the components of the waste stream is an important step toward solving the problems associated with the generation and management of MSW.

Recovered paper and paper board have long been an important source of fiber for the paper industry. An evolving combination of environmental, economic and political factors, related in large part to concerns about MSW management, guarantee that recycling will supply an increasing share of the industry’s fiber needs in the future.

In 1990, approximately 29 million tons, or 28 percent, of paper and paper board was collected for reuse. The industry has set a goal for a 40 percent recovery and reuse rate to be achieved by 1995. If this goal is met, the total recovery of recyclable paper and paper board in the United States will increase from 29 million tons in 1990 to approximately 40 million tons in 1995.

This requires a significant expansion of the recycled paper and paper board production capacity, an expansion that is already well underway. Lately, recycled fiber has been added in increasing quantities to paper grades that have traditionally been produced primarily from virgin fiber.

This paper discusses the environmental impact on waste water treatment, solid waste and air emissions as the paper industry continues its reliance on recycled fiber. This paper also discusses the recent installation of a 400 ton per day newsprint deinking facility at Champion International Corporation’s Sheldon, Texas, mill and the water conservation program and solid waste handling system installed at that mill to deal with the environmental impact of recycling.