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have been focused on reducing water
usage, leading plants like American Eagle
Paper Mills in Pennsylvania to reduce daily
water consumption by nearly 82 percent.L
eafing through a magazine.
Excitedly tearing into a box of
delicious cereal. Packing up gifts in a
cardboard box.
We might do all of these things on the
same day and never stop to think about
the paper that connects each activity to
the next. OK, maybe not the exact same
piece of paper, but still—paper recycling
touches almost every part of daily life,
from the way we reuse scraps of printer
paper for art projects to the way toilet
paper makes its way through sewage
treatment centers and into compost
that helps grow more trees.
And while many of us learn about
reuse, reduction, and recycling in our
own homes, the paper industry is
doing just that on a larger scale, constantly
inventing new ways to use recycled
paper and to improve the processes by
which paper is made. And as consumers
look to make more sustainable choices at
the individual level, major corporations
are following suit. Some beverage compa-
nies are in the process of replacing plastic
shrink-wrap on their products with recycled
paper, a move that could save thousands
of tons of plastic annually. It’s the kind of
paper Thompson says can come from
almost any kind of recycled paper—
“layers of material with a mixed paper
center.” A common refrain, she says, is
that each piece of paper is recycled four
to seven times, so a high-quality magazine
paper might become a box, and then
another box, and, she says, “if it continues
to get downcycled it might end up as
something like toilet paper, and then of
course the toilet paper ends up going to
the waste treatment plants and ultimately
becomes compost.”
Many manufacturers of paper products
like tissues and toilet paper are publicizing
their commitment to sourcing paperfrom responsibly managed forests,
and encouraging consumers to learn
more about the process by which
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Stewardship Council.
And just as a paper collector of the
1900s might leave not even a scrap
behind, the industry is working to remind
paper users that every little bit counts.
“People always wonder if they can recycle
envelopes with plastic windows, or pack-
ets with staples,” says Thompson, and
these questions point—encouragingly—
to an increased awareness of just how
much paper touches our everyday lives.
Receipts, box tops, labels—the smallest
pieces of paper add up. Accord-
ing to the Environmental Protection
Agency, “paper and paperboard is
the most recycled material in the
country, accounting for more than two-
thirds of everything that gets recycled.”M
ost of us learn the three r’s
in elementary school: reduce,
reuse, recycle. And those ideas are at
the forefront of many minds now more
han ever—should we stop using plastic
straws? Invest in reusable containers?
Compost at home to rely less on land-
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be more environmentally conscious and
how to do it can feel overwhelming, which
is where paper comes in. It’s an already
natural material with a deep connection
to responsible reuse and an industry
looking forward to new methods of
production and new trees.
Brown paper packages have never
looked so good.Paper & paperboard is the most recycled material
in the country, accounting for more than2/3 of everything that gets recycled