ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES FOR PUBLISHING (II)

"The popular image of what constitutes recycling-- separating one's garbage into various categories, leaving it neatly sorted at curbside, and seeing it carted off by industrious sanitation workers--does not really reconstitute recycling at all. It constitutes sortingand collecting. Recycling has not occurred until the loop is closed: that is, until someone buys (or gets paid to take) the sorted materials, manufactures them into something else, and sells that something back to the public."

Recycled paper is "new paper made entirely or in part from old paper...Mills put old paper back into the pulping process and blend it with virgin pulp. Old paper that mills recycle into new paper comes from two sources: post-consumer waste andpre-consumer waste."

Post-consumer wasteis paper that has been printed. "Post-consumer waste is paper, paperboard, and other fibrous wastes from homes and businesses. These...include...used corrugated boxes, old newspapers and magazines, discarded copy paper, and other fibrous wastes that...are collected from municipal solid waste."

Pre-consumer waste is paper that has not been printed. "Pre-consumer waste is dry paper and paperboard waste generated after completion of the papermaking process. This includes envelope cuttings, bindery trimmings, rejected stock, butt rolls, and obsolete inventories of paper manufacturers, dealers, converters, and printers.

"(P)ost-consumer waste makes up most of the paper waste that goes into landfills...Because the demand for recycled paper is driven by landfill considerations, post-consumer paper waste is considered by many consumers to be the only legitimate type of material that should count toward 'recycled' content."

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