Wisconsin Governor Signs Bill to Reduce Recycled Content Levels

Late last week Wisconsin’s Governor Jim Doyle signed into law legislation that would reduce the minimum standard for recycled content in newsprint from 40 percent to 33 percent.

Assembly bill 187, signed into law on Dec. 12, also bans any further increase in the recycled-content level. Under the previous law, newspapers in the state were generally required to pay a newspaper recycling fee based on the volume of newsprint used by the publisher unless the newsprint on which the newspaper is printed contains a specified minimum percentage of fiber derived from post-consumer waste.

For 1998 to 2000, the specified minimum percentage is 33 percent. For 2001 and 2002, the specified minimum percentage is 37 percent. For this year and going forward, the minimum percentage climbed to 40 percent

Under this bill, the specified minimum percentage of fiber from post-consumer fiber for newsprint used in newspapers is 33 percent, with no future increases.