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Buying Recycled Paper
Welcome to the Stanford Recycling Center's web page on purchasing
recycled paper at Stanford! Here you will find information on
why buying recycled paper is important,
how recycled paper is made, common
myths about recycled paper, and a list of
links to websites with more information
about recycled paper. For information about buying other recycled products, click
here.
Because Stanford University uses so much paper, we have the ability to
conserve many natural resources by switching to recycled paper. In 1998,
Stanford used an average of 13,500 reams of 8.5 by 11 inch paper in an
average month.(1) This amounts to 81 million sheets of paper in a year
or about 5,770 trees. Purchasing recycled paper would greatly reduce
our impact on the environment. Recycled paper conserves forests as
approximately 42% of trees harvested nationwide end up as pulpwood for
pulp and paper.(2)
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Recycled paper also saves energy and water and
reduces pollution. Producing recycled paper takes 60% less energy
and 58% less water than producing virgin paper and produces 74% less
air pollution and 35% less water pollution.(3) |
| Recycled Vs. Virgin Paper |
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| Energy Used |
Water Used |
Air Pollution Produced |
Water Pollution Produced |
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| Key |
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Paper that is collected for recycling is sorted according to the type
of mill that will use it. Most recovered office paper can be sent to
a deinking mill, which separates the ink, coatings and other extra materials
from the paper fibers. The fibers are then sent to a paper machine to
be made into new paper.
Even virgin paper mills have always recycled their internal scraps and
many also have long recycled clean scraps from businesses that convert
paper into envelopes, reams and other products. A few printing and writing
paper mills have long had the capacity to deink printers' scraps. Reusing
this "preconsumer" material is an economically sensible part of the production
process and proves that recycling works.
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| Buying Recycled Paper Helps Prevent Paper |
| from Ending up in a Landfill |
But the vast majority of paper ends up in people's homes and businesses,
where 90% is discarded within a year. This "postconsumer" paper is more
diverse, with characteristics such as copier toner and a wide variety
of adhesives that are not found in preconsumer scraps and are much harder
to recycle. Most of this postconsumer paper used to be landfilled or
burned -- losing its potential for repeatedly conserving resources by
continual recycling -- and local governments had few markets for selling
the recyclable office and household paper they were collecting in community
recycling programs.
Now many governments and businesses purchasers require postconsumer content
in their recycled papers. Most recycled papers now have some postconsumer
content. But there is, nevertheless, significant room for increase:
more than 90% of the market still goes to virgin paper and even recycled papers
could include much higher postconsumer percentages.
Reducing Paper Use is Important Too
In addition to purchasing recycled paper, it is easy to reduce your
paper use by using double sided copies and printing drafts of documents
on the blank side of paper that has already been printed on once.
Recycled Paper Jams Copy Machines
Today's recycled paper is high quality and technically perfected for
use in copiers. If the paper jams in a copier, it is not because of the
recycled content. It may be that the ream sat opened for a long time and
absorbed moisture. Sometimes people use paper that's not formatted for copiers
and then wonder why it jams. Use paper qualified as "high-speed" for high
speed copiers. The machine may need cleaning or adjusting. You can always try another
brand of recycled paper, just as you'd try another brand of virgin paper.
Proving that recycled paper does not jam copy machines, Kinkos uses recycled paper.
Several Stanford departments also successfully use recycled paper,
including Anthropological Sciences, Comparative Studies in Race and
Ethnicity, German Studies, History and Science, Technology and Society.
The Little Fibers in Recycled Paper Create Too Much Dust in Machines
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Excessive dust comes not from recycled fibers but from inadequate production processes
or incomplete vacuuming of cut paper sides. Buy high quality paper to avoid
such problems. |
Recycled Paper is Hard to Find and More Expensive
| It is quite simple to buy recycled paper at Stanford because several
brands of recycled paper are currently included in the university's
campus wide purchasing agreements. Simply search for recycled paper
using the term search in the on-line catalogue. Recycled paper is even cheaper
than virgin paper as Xerox 8.5 by 11'' 20 lb recycled paper
(XER3R6296SU) costs $2.53 a ream and Eureka recycled paper (EUR06172)
costs $3.30 a ream, compared to the $3.33 a ream for the cheapest
virgin paper. |
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Recycled Paper is Lower Quality
In the 1980s, recycled paper was often of uneven quality, sometimes appearing
tan, gray or spotted. But today recycled paper is available in all colors,
including the brightest whites, and meets the highest technical standards,
sometimes even exceeding comparable virgin papers.
Sources:
(1) Stefani K. Fukushima, Buyer, Procurement Department, Stanford University.
(2) David Assman, Recycling and Hazardous Waste Program Manager, City and County of San Francisco, November 1999.
(3) Benefits of Recycling, Californians Against Waste Foundation.
The section on making recycled paper and all of the myths except the
Stanford specific information are from the Buy Recycled Business
Alliance's
fact sheet on recycled paper.
The forest picture is by Larry Carver Photography, the landfill picture
is by Benzaco and the copier picture is by Josh Riker. All pictures are
from Webshots.
- Conservatree
- Conservatree, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing
the most up-to-date, no-nonsense, in-depth, insider information about
environmentally sound papers and market development. Their informative
web site offers information on the process of making paper and the
environmental choices each person makes when they buy paper.
The site also has pages about how to reduce paper use, how to choose
paper for different uses, and how to understand the jargon of the paper industry.
- San Mateo County Recycle Works
- This site contains a variety of information and practical tools to
help Bay Area businesses and residents use recycled paper at work and
at home. In here you will find recycled paper vendor lists (including
local sources), a comprehensive business guide to buying recycled paper,
downloadable articles you can publish in your company newsletter, memos
and emails that you can send to your purchasing department and
co-workers, assistance with bids, contracts, and specifications and much more. If you would like to buy recycled paper to use at home, this site also has a list of stores that carry recycled paper in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties.
- Santa Clara County Integrated Waste Management
- Under the business and commercial recycling section, this site
offers information about buying recycled products, preventing and
reducing waste, and a plan to help offices use significantly less
paper with sample memos to employees.
- CIWMB Buy Recycled Program
- The California Integrated Waste Management Board’s Buy Recycled programs promote the State of California’s policy to buy recycled-content products and other environmentally preferable products. The programs support the Department of General Services (DGS), all other State agencies, and local governments in establishing policies and practices for purchasing recycled-content products (RCP), as well as support activities that promote waste reduction and management.
- Buy Recycled Business Alliance
- The Buy Recycled Business Alliance (BRBA) is a group of
organizations committed to increasing the procurement of recycled
content products through education and leadership by example. The
site offers a comprehensive list of recycled content products, an
on-line forum, information about the environmental actions of each
member company, and a library on buying recycled products.
- The Buy Recycled Website
- This web site offers an excellent detailed explanation of the need
to purchase recycled content products and therefore help to 'close the
loop' by creating a demand for materials collected by recycling programs.
While the legislative details are specific to the UK, the site does have
great overall information and clarifications of terminology.
Back to 5 R Recycling Program
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