Paper Recycling

Let’s talk paper Appomattox. Your Landfill has a mixed paper recycling program. We have recycling containers at most of your convenience sites and one behind Wilbuns Supermarket for mixed paper. Mixed paper includes adding machine tape, booklets, carbon-less forms, colored paper, fax and telex copy paper, flyers, greeting cards, magazines, manila folders, manuals, newspapers, post-it notes, soft-covered books with white pages, telephone directories, time cards, white and colored envelopes with windows, white paper, and many other products. Please keep your paper clean of contaminants such as candy wrappers, carbon paper, coffee cups, paper towels, and tissue. We use paper products every day, from newspapers to office paper. In fact, paper makes up part of the largest portion of the waste stream in the United States and offers the greatest opportunity to recycle. Learning the facts about recycling paper will help us as we fulfill our part to keep our environment green. We only need to look around us to see that paper is everywhere and of course, the need for it is essential. If we keep our minds focused on the desire to be friendly to our Earth and her resources, recycling will become important. After a while, we will be in the habit of recycling the paper we use every day. Also, by setting an example, we will teach our children so that recycling becomes as common and familiar as the ABCs. How much paper is used in the United States and why should Appomattox care?

• American businesses generate enough paper to circle the Earth 20 times and as a Nation we throw away enough office and writing paper annually to build a wall 12 feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York.
• To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
• If all of our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year.
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees each year.
• If you had a 15 year old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you’d get about 700 bags. An average supermarket could use all of them in under an hour. This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!
• The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution.
• The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year.

Another way that you can support paper recycling is by purchasing recycled products. Buying recycled paper is an equally important step in the recycling process. It closes the recycling loop. Even though trees are a renewable resource, much energy and landfill space can be conserved when we buy recycled content paper. When buying recycled content paper, remember to look for the highest percentage of post consumer waste content (the largest percentage of waste paper used to make the new, recycled-content paper). Look for the recycled symbol, which means that the product is made out of materials used before. There may be a statement next the symbol that mentions the percentage of recycled-content in the product. Don’t be confused by the Recycled and Recyclable symbols. The Recycled symbol has a dark circle background and the Recyclable symbol has no background. The Recyclable symbol means that the product can be recycled, not that it necessarily contains recycled content.

More than 5,000 products can be made from recycled paper, Including:
• Animal bedding
• Bags
• Bandages
• Bank checks
• Books
• Car insulation
• Coffee filters
• Dust masks
• Egg cartons
• Globes
• Hospital gowns
• Lamp shades
• Masking tape
• Notebooks & notebook paper
• Paper money
• Photocopy & computer paper
• Planting pots for seedlings
• Postage stamps

When you consider the tremendous benefits of paper, it’s clear that we must all continue to work together by recycling used paper. Recycling is easy to do, and it’s good for business and the environment. So, next time you read the paper, open your mail, clean out your files, or empty a box, don’t put that paper in the trash. Complete the circle and recycle it.