A Word About Recycling with Ollie Maier
An article in a recent Resource Recycling newsletter on the 2019 Resource Recycling Conference and Trade Show in New Orleans caught our eye… Probably because part of it concentrated on the recycling of paper materials. As one of the speakers related, “Fiber is the ‘elephant in the room’ as far as the value of the residential mix that municipalities receive.” (Elephant in the Room = an obvious problem or difficult situation.)
This part of the conference featured experts from the American Forest & Paper Association, the Gemini Corporation, the Continuous Improvement Fund, Sustana Fiber, and Pioneer Recycling Services. As to why recycled paper was important in the conference, one member mentioned about 75 percent of the material that often comes into a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is paper. Of Course, when China stopped taking most of our recycled paper materials, it made a very significant change in what those collecting this material could do with it or where to sell it. China went from taking hundreds of thousands of tons each year to taking practically none.
And unfortunately, as one speaker commented, “The generators of this material are totally disconnected from the price. They have no price signal and so they don’t respond.” This means they continue to collect as much of it as they can, not knowing what the market for it might be or if they might even have to sell it at a loss. While many of us agree recycling is the right thing to do, if the company or city collecting it is losing money on it, it is hard to justify. The speaker offered his opinion that, “… volatility is the norm in the pricing of recyclables and that stability is the exception.” (288 words)
So what types of paper are being recycled? We find that mixed-paper (a variety of papers being collected together), make up about 12 percent and cardboard is the largest at over 70 percent. The two main products made from mixed-paper are paperboard (think of cereal boxes or shoe boxes) and containerboard. Also, about 20 percent is made into tissue paper.
As for our exports of recycled paper, after China quit taking almost all of it, India is now where most of it is going. They have about 700 smaller paper mills. Even though small, these mills can each use from 100 to 250 tons of paper each day. About 65 percent of the paper they process is imported. About half of their imports come from the U.S., the rest from other countries including about 25 percent from the Middle-East.
In our country, some of the companies/municipalities collecting the paper are making improvements to provide a better quality raw material. These improvements include upgrading their fiber optical sorting systems, installing ballistic separators, and even retrofitting entire MRFs to incorporate artificial intelligence robotics. And even thought the markets are constantly changing, these companies are optimistic. Thus more mills are scheduled to come on-line; some new, others that were idled.
It was nice to note that one of these companies takes in about 25 million Starbucks single-use coffee cups to use in making new coffee cups for them and others. So enjoy that coffee contained in a paper cup at any of these places, but don’t forget to recycle that cup.
Till next week, do have a great one...
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Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432. or email omaier@txstate.edu.
