Letter to the editor: Paper industry should support EPR legislation

Editor’s note: This letter to the editor is in response to the cover story of Recycling Today’s January issue, “A new paper recycling reality.”

Thank you for the excellent article on the development of the new paper recovery estimates by the American Forest & Paper Association [AF&PA].

A few decades ago, AF&PA and its paper-producing members decided to work to increase paper recovery, to track recovery/recycling rates and to set aggressive stretch goals. AF&PA did this in the interest of increasing paper recovery, but also to attempt to fend off any future potential command and control governmental legislation regarding the industry’s products. AF&PA and its member companies are to be commended for their leadership and good works on this, especially when compared with the plastics industry, which has made recovery promises for 40-plus years and delivered very little. The plastics industry has not even attained 10 percent recycling recovery for packaging after all these years.

The AF&PA member companies have done an admirable job of increasing paper recovery from quite low numbers 40 years ago. However, in the interest of demonstrating a very positive story, the recovery numbers reported surpassed the volumes of paper that were actually being recovered. NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] like the National Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund communicated over 20 years ago to AF&PA telling them the recovery numbers were exaggerated. AF&PA ignored that input.

All AF&PA's team had to do to know the OCC [old corrugated containers] recovery rate was not 91.4 percent was to look in the dumpsters at a typical residential apartment complex or consider the fact that the millions of American single-family homeowners do not receive recycling services, or, if they do, some occupants do not participate in recycling. Further study of the low recovery rates for all materials in states like Colorado, Mississippi, Alabama and others would have provided enlightenment.

Myles Cohen, a captain of the recycling industry, is to be thanked for investigating more realistic recovery numbers and making the case to AF&PA and others, leading AF&PA to the revisions reported in your article.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s claim of $4 billion in recovered paper value being disposed of assumes that all the paper disposed could be sold to the paper mill community or other recycling options. This is not the case. More recovered paper is generated in the U.S. than domestic and global paper mills can consume, based on current production. NREL's point is correct that there is a lot of economic value being disposed of, it's just not at the magnitude of $4 billion.

If AF&PA, along with its members, are interested in working to actualize recovery numbers like their original estimates, there is a road that could be traveled and that could be very rewarding for all parties, especially the environment and economy.

The answer is extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation, which is now the law and in the process of being implemented in five states. EPR has been a success story in Europe and other locations for decades.

AF&PA has opposed EPR legislation, one assumes because their members would have to pay into the fund that supports local government recovery programs. Given that the paper companies would pass those costs on to their customers, why the resistance? EPR legislation in Europe going back over 25 years ago did not bankrupt any paper-producing companies. As your readers know, EPR-based programs have been successful all over the world.

Without extensive EPR legislation in the U.S., the paper recovery rates will stay relatively static in the coming years. AF&PA has a bold opportunity to add to their historic good work on driving significantly higher paper recovery volume by supporting EPR legislation at the state level and, maybe someday, at the national level and, in the process, delivering on recovery rates that look like their historic estimates.

Pete Grogan

Former paper industry executive and past president of the National Recycling Coalition