ABSTRACT
The Environmental Protection Agency reported 1990 paper recycling rates of 20.9 million tons, amounting to 28.6 percent of consumption. The most important sources of wastepaper collected for recycling are newspapers, corrugated boxes, and office paper. Concern grew that with the growing interest in curbside collection of recycled paper, supply would exceed the mill capacity available for processing it. Oregon was one of the only states in the United States having more recycling mill capacity than paper to recycle. Total United States collection of waste corrugated for recycling was 11.2 million tons in 1987, up from 10.2 million tons in 1986. About 25 percent of United States production of newsprint in 1986 contained some fraction of recycled paper, and some was 100 percent recycled. Paper recycling starts with the resuspension of paper fibers into pulp slurry. Contaminants are a major hindrance to recycling. Recycling of paper packaging materials will probably remain impractical for the foreseeable future, with a few exceptions.
