PAPER RECYCLING CONFERENCE: Keeping the Loop Closed

The “chasing arrows” recycling symbol should remind recyclers of an important consideration, says Fred von Zuben, chairman and CEO of the Newark Group, Cranford, N.J. The symbol represents a closed loop, which cannot be closed without prosperous consuming mills.

“The dynamics of paper recycling are changing,” von Zuben told attendees of the Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show, held in late June in Chicago. “Our reaction to those changes will have positive results . . . provided we all remember recycling is a closed loop process.”

On the paper mill side of the loop, von Zuben remarked that, “Mills cannot be asked to adjust to bad quality” shipments from recyclers. In particular, von Zuben expressed concerns about single-stream curbside collection and processing.

“Is this, in fact, the silver bullet?” von Zuben asked regarding single-stream’s ability to save curbside recycling programs and increase tonnage collected. “I would argue [that] single-stream may prove to be the beginning of the end of the recycling success story,” he answered.

Echoing sentiments expressed by Dr. James Burke of SP Newsprint, Atlanta, at last year’s Paper Recycling Conference, von Zuben said his paperboard making company “may not be there in the future” as a market for recycled paper if quality issues are not addressed.

“Contaminants can turn perfectly good materials back into garbage,” stated von Zuben, noting that this offsets the potential good of increasing overall tonnage.

When mill companies are asked to purify an incoming contaminated product, it adds a cost they are not equipped to bear. Mills “cannot afford to add another cost to our production,” von Zuben remarked.

Both von Zuben and session moderator Bill Moore of paper industry consulting firm Moore & Associates, Atlanta, pointed to signs that the North American paper industry is neither swimming in profits nor growing to include additional mill facilities.

Moore noted that the U.S. paper industry “will lose 6.5 million tons of capacity in the 2000 to 2003 period,” and that some 56 paper mills have shut down in the past three years.