Paper Retriever Fetches Car for Recycling Coordinator

Leading paper recycler Abitibi-Consolidated, headquartered in Montreal, has awarded John Wade of Walpole, Mass., with a 2006 Honda Civic hybrid. Wade was the grand prize winner in the first Abitibi Paper Retriever® Customer Recycling Coordinators Sweepstakes.

Michael Sullivan, general manager of Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling division; Jason Bean, Abitibi Paper Retriever® Boston area manager; Claire Sullivan, president of Mass Recycle; and Kathi Mirza, MassDEP municipal recycling coordinator, presented Wade with the car.

Wade is the recycling coordinator in charge of the Abitibi Paper Retriever container at the Maples Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Wrentham, Mass. The center donates the money it earns earned by recycling paper in the Abitibi Paper Retriever’s signature green and yellow container to Little Angels, a county-run day care center located on its grounds.

Abitibi’s first Customer Recycling Coordinators Sweepstakes offered the opportunity for all customer recycling coordinators in 23 U.S. and Canadian metro areas to register online at www.PaperRetriever.com to win a hybrid car.

There are currently more than 14,000 Abitibi Paper Retriever customer recycling coordinators across the United States and Canada who are responsible for the promotion, education and overall management of their organization’s participation in program.

“We wanted to show our appreciation for the hard work and efforts of our customer recycling coordinators who go above and beyond to generate awareness about the importance of recycling,” Sullivan said at the awards ceremony. “Many of them manage and lead their organization’s recycling program on their own time and encourage neighboring residents to recycle their paper as well. It all benefits the organization.”

Abitibi Paper Retriever is a free community paper recycling program that allows participating organizations to earn money while learning the environmental benefits of recycling. Abitibi-Consolidated and its Abitibi Paper Retriever partners save an estimated 8.5 million cubic yards of landfill space each year in North America. In 2005, the company paid more than $3.1 million to nonprofit organizations through the program.