Recycled paper is worth the effort

Friday, November 29th, 2002

Dear Marti.
I heard that recycling paper can actually be worse for the environment because of the chemicals and the toxic inks released in the de-inking process and for that reason it’s better if we just throw it away.

Signed,

Questioning Recycling

Dear Questioning,

Ah, recycling myth #347, the old “If I trash it, it’s better for the environment” myth put out there by anti-recyclers. The short answer is: not true. There is, of course, a very good reason to be concerned about “de-ink sludge,” or the mix of dyes, clays and inks that comes off the cleaned paper fibers in the recycling process. It’s definitely not clean stuff. It can contain PCBs, dioxins, solvents and toxic metals. But what’s important to know is that virtually all the toxic materials in sludge do not come from the de-inking process, but from the inks, dyes and organochlorines added during the printing and bleaching processes when that paper was originally made and inked. If paper is not recycled, the chemicals and inks will present a much worse environmental problem. If they go to a standard landfill, they can become part of the toxic ooze that leaches out of landfills and potentially into the groundwater. If they’re sent to an incinerator, the chemicals will head for the skies…and for our lungs, or they’ll be concentrated in the incinerator’s ash or scrubber residue which then goes to the landfill. The de-inking process is the best way to concentrate these materials so they can be isolated and treated as hazardous waste, while the fiber is recovered and recycled. Recycling paper is not a 100% clean process, but no manufacturing or remanufacturing process is. The fact is, it’s a much cleaner process to make paper from recycled fiber than from virgin wood pulp. Virgin papermaking requires the use of far more chemicals than are required in the de-inking process used to make recycled paper. Virgin paper making also requires an intense amount of bleach to whiten the fiber and remove the “lignin,” the natural glue in cellulose plants like trees that yellows the paper if it’s not removed. (That’s why your newspaper yellows in the sun, but your white paper doesn’t; the white paper has had the lignin bleached out.) Recycling paper also uses 55% less water and 60-70% less energy than making paper from virgin pulp. All this is good to remember over the holidays, when our use of paper products soars. If you buy holiday greeting cards, support recycling and a cleaner paper making process by buying cards that say they’re made with recycled content and printed with soy-based inks. Don’t use the heavily dyed dark red and green envelopes. Not only are they not recyclable—those dyes in the recycling process are akin to putting a cherry red t-shirt in with your white linens—but they’re also more toxic to produce and will add to the toxic sludge when landfilled. Avoid using wrapping paper, since it’s saturated with colorfully toxic inks, clays and chemicals. Get creative and reuse your old calendar, the Sunday comics, a map or blueprints. Choose reusable gift bags, or wrap a gift within a gift by using things like a scarf or bandana. You’ll impress your friends and family with your eco-hip techniques, and you’ll likely see them mimicked next year. If the environmental statistics don’t change your mind about the value of recycling, then consider the fact that these environmental and energy savings have led the paper industry to invest in building more and more recycling mills to recycle ever more millions of tons of paper each year. They’re no longer building new virgin paper mills that don’t take recycled fiber. Why? Because it doesn’t just make environmental sense, but capitalists like it, too. So keep using that recycling bin and don’t believe the anti-recycling hype.

Send your recycling questions to marti@ecocycle.org.