Paper Recycling in the United States
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Fifty years following the initial domestic paper recycling industry discussions, paper recycling issues continue to highlight American recycling activities.
Paper and paperboard, a category constituting the largest share of the municipal waste stream, rightly receives recycling attention. The three charts presented here provide both short term and long term aggregate statistical examinations of paper recycling trends.
The bar chart at the top of the page shows aggregate paper recovery and disposal rates between 1960 and 2010, at ten year intervals. The gradual growth of the blue bar and corresponding shrinking of the red bar in each of the time intervals reflects increases in aggregate paper recycling trends. By 2010, Americans recycled 62.5% of total newspaper and paperboard waste.
The decline in total paper waste between 2000 and 2010 might reflect on the habits of the wireless and paperless generation, who simply used less paper than their predecessors.
The second chart, a pie chart, compares nondurable paper types in the 2010 municipal waste stream. Along with newspapers, it includes familiar home and work paper categories such as magazines, books, office paper and mail.
In terms of sheer volume, newspaper dominated the 2010 nondurable waste stream, accounting for 29.4% of the total. Combined, office paper and mail account for an additional 28.6% of the total waste.
Aggregate recycling statistics show a positive correlation between category size and recycling activity, with both newspaper recycling and office paper recycling ranking as the two highest in the nondurable paper category.
Tissue paper and paper plates, a combined 14.4% of the 2010 waste stream, ranked at the bottom of the nondurable recycled paper category, with no recorded material recycling for either category.
Along with the nondurable paper category, paper recycling also takes into account container and packaging waste generation and recovery. Most container waste and recovery efforts deal with corrugated boxes. In fact, with a 2010 recycling rate of 85.%, corrugated box recycling ranks first in the list of recycled paper materials.
Chart three adds a bit of depth to the paper recycling presentation by providing a fifty year look at newspaper recovery rates.
In terms of sheer volume, newspaper recovery rates increased from approximately 1.8 billion billion tons in 1960 to approximately 7.1 billion tons in 2010. The 2010 figure also represents 71.60% of total newspaper (and insert) waste, for a paper recycling ranking second only to corrugated boxes.
The decline in total newspaper waste shows a similar trend to the decline in overall paper waste during the decade between 2000 and 2010. As more of the wireless and paperless generation began using internet sources for news, the new industry began transitioning from a paper to a web based delivery platform, thus decreasing their aggregate use and disposal of newsprint.
Source: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. December 2011.
© 2001-2012. Patricia A. Michaels.