Chances are 50-50 that you will recycle this paper: how can we improve those odds?

Paper recycling is at an all-time high, but the American Forest & Paper Association (AF & PA) is upping the ante. AF & PA is renewing its challenge to recycle more high-quality paper by announcing an aggressive 55% paper recovery goal. The new 55% goal represents an increase over paper recovery levels today equivalent to filling 23 Empire State buildings annually with paper. This goal illustrates the commitment of the paper industry to safeguarding the environment by increasing the amount of paper diverted from 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%. For specific product categories such as newsprint and corrugated containers, the numbers are at unprecedented 71% and 74%, respectively.

The paper industry has a well-documented commitment to paper recycling. AF & PA members voluntarily established a goal to recover 40% of the paper consumed in the United States by 1995. In 1995, the industry set a 50% recovery goal. AF & PA and its member companies, with the help of innovative and action-oriented communities across the country, achieved a 48.1% paper recovery rate in 2002.

More than 80% of paper mills in the United States use recovered paper to make many of their products, and 200 mills in the United States use recovered paper exclusively. Of the paper currently recovered in the United States, 95% is recycled into new paper products with the balance used in other applications. Over the past 20 years, AF & PA has made recovered paper an integral part of the paper and paperboard industry. More than 38% of all the raw material used to make new paper comes from recovered paper. In addition, the paper industry in the United States has coupled efforts to improve its recycling capabilities with initiatives aimed at improving access to recovered paper. These efforts have increased the amount of paper kept from the waste stream and put it into new products and packaging.

Despite the dramatic increases in recycling, a crisis is looming. As domestic and export demand for recovered paper in the United States 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% surge in recovered paper exports in the United States. Most demand will come from Asia and particularly China.

To achieve its 55% goal, AF & PA has developed integrated public-private sector partnerships with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 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 cannot take 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 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 staff, schools, and local government to do more as we move toward a maximum recovery rate. Please see www.afandpa.org for additional information about paper recycling.

About the author: W. Henson Moore is president and CEO of the American Forest & Paper Association, Washington, D.C., USA.

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W. HENSON MOORE, AF & PA