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Where does our paper go?

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March 18, 2005

Have you ever wondered where your paper goes after you put it out to the curb in your brown cart? Well on Tuesday I found out exactly what happens to it! This doesn't apply to Biddeford but actually; Old Orchard Beach's paper ends up with Saco's as well.

BBI picks up your recycling at the curb and the fiber is brought to the Recycling Center at Saco Public Works where it waits to be loaded into a tractor-trailer. This truck brings the fiber all the way down to North Shore Recycled Fibers in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Why does our fiber go all the way to Mass? Because that's who wants it. Recycling only works when there is a market for the product being recycled. So, if no one wanted our paper, which is the case for some communities, then we would get less money for it, or have to hang on to it until the market got better. If shipping were more accessible there would be a lot of U.S. recyclables going over to China!

So, once in Haverhill, MA our paper gets made into a type of paperboard. This paper mill makes 100% post consumer paperboard that ends up as packaging or even game boards and puzzle pieces for Hasbro and some other well known companies. Post consumer means that people like us have used the paper before it was made into something new. Sometimes you will see labels that say "recycled paper" but that could mean just the clippings from other paper that they made. Usually you find 25% post consumer products because any more and it gets difficult to keep the color of paper that is desired without using more chemicals. This mill uses no chemicals other than starch at the end of their paper process to keep the paper stiff. They make huge rolls of paper, and then they cut them to the size that their customers want them. Even the scraps from this mill get recycled and made into more paper. They do use water in their recycling process but even that water gets recycled! They use very little new water.

Other items that this paper is used for: the inner packaging for dishwasher detergents and laundry detergents, packaging that might not end up on the grocer's shelves but separates the products before they get to the shelf. Book covers are another product made there, and most textbook covers in this area are made from this recycled material.

As usual I am interested in what you've learned and what you have to teach me. Send me your recycling ideas and let me know if it's all right to mention your name in these articles. You can contact me at swojcoski@sacomaine.org or at the Saco Public Works Department. Happy Spring!