Manufacturers’ Efforts at Closing the Loop

Businesses that have committed to buy and/or make recycled-content products are helping to complete the recycling chain in some oversupplied markets.

By Kimberley R. Harris

Kimberley R. Harris is associate market analyst for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (Washington, D.C.).

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times. The problem with markets for many recyclables--especially municipally collected materials--is simply too much supply and not enough demand. The sad-but-true fact is that collecting household recyclables has turned out to be much easier and more successful than locating markets for them.

While government collection mandates bear much of the responsibility for this imbalance, the public sector is also working to equalize this skewed market scale it has helped to create. Last October, for instance, the Clinton administration issued an executive order to increase the federal government's use of recycled products, especially printing and writing paper, rerefined motor oil, retread tires, and foam building insulation. In addition, virtually all states and hundreds of local governments have already implemented, or are expected to adopt, their own procurement requirements as well as other measures designed to stimulate markets.

Such government actions are important, but they can't solve all of the recycling market problems. The private sector is key to balancing the supply-demand situation, and fortunately many firms-large and small-are working to do their part by making and buying recycled-content products. Evidence of this trend can be seen in the formation of the Buy Recycled Business Alliance, a joint effort of the National Recycling Coalition (Washington, D.C.) and more than I 00 U.S. corporations that have committed to buy more recycled-content goods and serve as examples for other businesses. More proof can be seen in the day-to-day manufacturing and procurement practices of individual companies, such as those that follow.

Making Glass Gains

Green may be the color that symbolizes the environmental movement, but when it comes to U.S. glass recycling, green frequently stands for glut. Even more so than its flint- and amber-colored counterparts, green cullet has seen supplies in the United States far outstrip demand in the last several years. A primary explanation for this situation lies in the domestic consumption of imported beer, wine, and water, which are often bottled in green glass. Because U.S. beverage makers aren't nearly as inclined to bottle their products in green glass, manufacturers tend to have little demand for all the scrap generated when people finish up their French wine or Dutch beer.

A move by Anheuser-Busch Cos. (St. Louis), however, is making a dent in that situation. When the company introduced O'Doul's alcohol-free brew a few years ago, it made the decision to bottle the beverage in green glass, in part to build demand for cullet of that color, but also based on recyclability, protection of the product, convenience for consumers, and motivation of consumers to select the product. In addition, the firm went with green glass for O'Doul's because the color fits the product's name and differentiates it from other domestic malt beverages.

The result? The company uses about 85 million pounds of green glass annually to bottle O'Doul's, with cullet accounting for approximately 25 percent of the feedstock in making that glass. Anheuser-Busch says it is encouraging its bottle suppliers to increase that percentage in future bottles.

The company's practice of using reclaimed green glass is only part of its efforts to complete the recycling loop. In 1993, for example, the firm purchased $2.1 billion worth of packaging with recycled content, amounting to nearly 1 billion pounds of scrap material--enough to fill a convoy of trucks stretching 220 miles. These purchases cover an array of recycled packaging materials such as aluminum cans, glass bottles, corrugated containers, kegs, and plastics. The firm has also striven to increase its purchases of recycled-content supplies, including paper towels and tissues, toner cartridges, and shop rags.

Aside from Anheuser-Busch's O'Doul's example, there are a growing number of non-container markets for recovered -lass of all colors, both processed and unprocessed. These encompass composite wall panels and lumber, glass tiles, fiberglass insulation, concrete additives, drainage aggregates, asphalt, and a substitute abrasive for sandblasting.

Recycling by the (Telephone) Book

When you "let your fingers do the walking," these days, chances are they could be trodding on a telephone book that's enjoying its second or even third life as a recycled product, thanks to a boom in the recycling of old telephone directories (OTDS) in the past few years. This progress stands in startling contrast to 1989, when few directories were printed on recycled-content paper and virtually no directories were recycled. "Even three years ago, directories were considered nonrecyclable," says John Purcell, vice president of public policy and environmental affairs for the Yellow Pages Publishers Association (YPPA) (Troy, Mich.).

Today, the YPPA reports that its members-which publish more than 90 percent of all phone books in the United States-recycled 50,614 tons of OTDs in 1992, or 17 percent of all directories printed. To Purcell, this figure means the myth that OTDs can't be recycled is dead.

"Through the efforts of YPPA publishers across the country," he asserts, "many new markets for old telephone directories have been developed."

BellSouth Advertising and Publishing Corp. (Atlanta) is one leader in these efforts. The company, which covers nine Southeastern states, began recovering OTDs in 1988, when it helped a community in Jacksonville, Fla., collect 115 tons of books, or 7 percent of the community's directories. BellSouth quickly learned, however, that the hot-melt glue used to bind its directories posed serious problems for domestic paper mills, and as a result, the fin-n had to export most of the books it initially collected, says Gail Wynne, senior manager of environmental affairs.

After much research by directory publishers and mills to correct this binding problem, BellSouth--and many others--decided to switch to a water-soluble adhesive to make its books more recyclable, while also opting to remove the ultra-violet coating from covers and convert from lead-based inks to soybean-based ones. These changes have enabled BellSouth to produce new directories that are 100-percent recyclable.

Since 1988, the company's collection programs have also enjoyed resounding success. In 1992, for example, BellSouth helped communities collect more than 6,900 tons of OTDS, representing 12 percent of its directories, and it continues to assist 84 community programs. Once collected, three-fourths of BellSouth's OTDs go to 1-nills for production into new newsprint. The remaining books are used in other markets, such as livestock bedding, construction linerboard, roofing material, hydromulch, cellulose insulation, and sheetrock backing.

Another recycling-conscious directory publisher is US West Direct (Englewood, Colo.), which distributes phone books in 14 Western states and which reportedly collected the largest quantity of OTDs in the United States in 1992-a total of 15,000 tons, according to Wendy Bertagnole, manager of recycling operations. And no wonder: US West has recycling programs running in about 124 of its estimated 300 markets and anticipates reaching the 150 mark by the end of 1994.

US West's directories contain hot-melt bindings, soybean-based colored inks, and petroleum-based black inks, all of which meet the recycling abilities of its consuming mill, Daishowa America Co. Ltd. (Port Angeles, Wash.), a plant specifically built to recycle OTDs collected through US West's programs in exchange for the publisher's promise to buy the recycled-content paper for use in its new directories. (The firm also buys paper from Powell River Alberni Sales Corp. [Port Alberni, British Columbia], a subsidiary of MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. [Vancouver, British Columbia].) By the first quarter of 1996, US West plans to include at least 25-percent recycled fiber in its new directories.

Meanwhile, other market-minded companies have found uses for other types of recovered paper. Insul-Tray Inc. (Shelton, Wash.), for example, manufactures panels of corrugated linerboard for construction uses that contain a percentage of recycled fibers. The company also offers cellulose insulation made from old newspapers and a boric acid solution for fire-resistance, which is blown into wall spaces.

Promoting Plastics

When it comes to plastic recycling, you've probably heard about Rubbermaid Inc. (Wooster, Ohio), which manufactures a spectrum of household and business products, including 64 that contain recycled plastics. Of that number, 24 products are manufactured with a minimum of 20-percent recovered plastic and four with 50-percent recycled content. The firm's recycling commitment is companywide: Its commercial products division has increased its use of recycled resin in collection containers; its home products division uses recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) from detergent bottles, crates, and soda bottle base cups to make household products; and its office products group uses recycled polystyrene in its line of desktop products. And Rubbermaid plans to double, perhaps even triple, its use of recycled resins by 2000.

There are, of course, many other examples of plastic recycling efforts, with reclaimed resin being used in such applications as plastic lumber, new soda bottles, packaging "peanuts," and household appliances. In addition, one firm--Knotwood Plastic Products (Omaha, Neb.)--makes a plastic roofing shingle called the Denver Shake made out of 94-percent postconsumer HDPE bottle scrap. And, of course, many manufacturers of household cleaning products, such as Procter & Gamble Co. (Cincinnati) and Clorox Co. (Oakland, Calif.), have aggressively increased their usage of recycled resin in their containers. Clorox, for one, plans to make the bottles for its Pine Sol cleaner out of 100-pe-rcent recycled polyethylene terephthalate, while also selling its Soft Scrub, Soft Scrub With Bleach, and Formula 409 in bottles containing 25-percent recycled HDPE.

Getting Rubber Recycling on Track

With a nationwide scrap tire stockpile estimated at 2 billion to 3 billion and about 250 million additional tires being discarded annually, there's certainly no dearth of scrap rubber. Fortunately, there are companies like Crafco Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.) to help whittle down those numbers.

Crafco manufactures approximately 60 different asphalt products, 80 percent of which use scrap rubber as a feedstock, says Don Brooks, general manager. Crafco's three locations across the country consume 8 million to 10 million pounds of granulated rubber annually, using the recycled rubber as an additive in a complex recipe. The firm sells primarily to the pavement and related maintenance industries, which use its asphalt crack sealants and other rubberized asphalt products, such as high performance roofing industry products.

Another rubber recycler that's making some headway in the effort to increase demand and offset supplies is Dodge-Regupol Inc. (Lancaster, Pa.), which makes products from recycled tire rubber using a rebonding process developed by BSW Co., a German firm connected with the company. The firm's offerings include safety surfacing for playgrounds, roofing protection, shipping pads, indoor/outdoor sports surfacing, and interlocking rubber flooring. In 1993, Dodge-Regupol consumed 10 million pounds of recycled rubber, with the majority being tire buffings from the retreading process, and Dodge expects its 1994 consumption figure to hit 15 million pounds.

Then there's F&B Enterprises Inc. (New Bedford, Mass.), one of the nation's oldest manufacturers of commercial fishing products, mats, and marine dock bumpers made from scrap tires. Today, the company is expanding into serving industrial markets, including--ironically--the recycling business. In one example, F&B makes solid recycled-rubber wheels for mobile containers that markets to equipment manufacturers that are specifically targeting the recycling industry. The company also offers recycled-content rubber pads for use on the bottom edge of loader buckets used in material recovery facilities. These pads protect not only a facility's concrete floor, but also the lip of the bucket.

And if you want to see rubber recycling from the ground level, look no further than the recycled-footwear efforts of Nike Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.), which plans to introduce this spring Escape Lo crosstrainers, manufactured from recycled materials, with outsoles that will reportedly contain up to 17-percent recycled rubber.

Learning the Lesson

While the supply-demand scenario for most new recycling markets is far from balanced, progress is being made to bring them into closer alignment, thanks to the "buy recycled" and "make recycled" efforts of public and private entities. These efforts are not only getting more recycled-content items produced and consumed, but also helping dispel the three principal misconceptions about recycled-content products-that they are more expensive than virgin goods, of questionable quality, and not produced widely enough or in sufficient quantities to meet consumer demand. If these examples prove nothing else, it's that both private industry and government have begun to take action on the hard lesson of recycling: If you don't have markets, you won't have recycling.  •