January/February 1991
The relationship between the scrap paper industry and legislative attempts to increase paper recycling was a hot topic at the recent PSI Conference.
By Elise R. Browne
Elise R. Browne is editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.
With “recycling” currently one of the most frequently uttered words in the language of government officials, and scrap paper a prime target of government-mandated "recycling" programs, the effects of federal, state, and local legislation on the secondary filters industry took center stage in discussions at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries's (ISRI) Paper Stock Institute (PSI) Conference held in Orlando, Fla., in November.
The event's two guest speakers concentrated their talks on legislative attempts to increase scrap paper recovery. Public demand for recycling comes from "twin driving forces," said Rep. Thomas A. Luken (D-Ohio), addressing the group. These two forces--disposal costs and, more important, increased environmentalism--Luken noted, should ensure that both the House and Senate will have recycling-related legislation high on their agendas this year. However, admitted the then-chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials, which is charged with hearing legislation to reauthorize the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), "whatever we do, we can only scratch the surface." The contributions of states in enacting mandatory recycling collection programs and of private-sector recyclers in returning recovered materials to commerce, he acknowledged, are integral to federal recycling plans.
When PSI members in the audience informed Luken of the negative impacts they've felt from some mandatory recycling programs, the congressman invited conference participants to submit to him their comments on how collection, consumption, and procurement requirements affect the secondary fibers industry. Although Luken retired from Congress at the end of the last session, he promised to incorporate PSI member input into his report to the 1991-92 subcommittee.
What Publishers Think
Tonda F. Rush, vice president of industry affairs for the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) (Washington, D.C.), took a less favorable stance on government recycling mandates in her presentation to the group. As the public has increased its demand for recycling programs, she said, "the temptation from the political point of view has been to get the biggest bang for the buck" through mandatory recyclables collection programs instead of development of markets.
Those laws that do purport to build markets for old newspapers (ONP) by requiring newspaper publishers to use recycled newsprint, she pointed out, may actually slow progress. A 1989 ANPA policy promotes the use of recycled newsprint. That, Rush said, along with results of a recent survey of the association's members that show that even publishers in small towns are seeking recycled newsprint, demonstrates that newspapers can increase demand on their own. Regulating newspapers, she said, merely results in court battles.
The key to increased use of recycled newsprint by newspapers is increased availability of such stock, Rush noted. An ANPA study of deinking capacity reveals "ambitious goals"--mostly at existing virgin mills--to triple. North American newsprint recycling capacity. According to ANPA, 16 mills--11 of which are Canadian--are committed to adding at least 4.1 million tons of capacity to the current 2.2 million tons of deinking capacity by 1992. The coming years' increased deinking capacity likely will result in increased demand for old magazines, Rush added, since the latest deinking technology is said to require clay, which is found in the coating of most magazine paper.
Preconsumer vs. Postconsumer
Committee meetings accounted for the bulk of the four-day PSI conference and they too examined the relationship between legislation/regulation and the scrap paper industry. At the meeting of the state and local government liaison committee, which agreed to change its name to the government relations committee to better reflect its expansive scope, the discussion centered on legislative terminology that distinguishes between "preconsumer" and "postconsumer" scrap paper. There are problems with proposals that make this distinction and place recycling preferences on the latter, said Committee Chairman George Elder, Southeast Recycling Corp. (Marietta, Ga.). For one thing, there is no chemical process to determine whether a piece of paper is “preconsumer” or "postconsumer," only a paper trail to give clues to a material's history. In addition, Elder pointed out, mandating use of "postconsumer" secondary fiber can have the effect of simply changing the types of items being landfilled. For instance, he explained, requiring a boxboard manufacturer to consume ONP instead of converter clippings keeps the ONP out of the waste stream, but adds the clippings to the landfill's tonnage.
The issue of defining "preconsumer" and “postconsumer" cropped up at the standard and practices committee meeting as well. Although many at the meeting expressed concern about the appropriateness of using such terminology, Chairman Jonathan Gold, North Shore Recycled Fibers (Salem, Mass.), noted that the committee needs to take the lead in defining these and other grade terminology “or mills and standards groups that don't know the industry as well will develop their own.”
The topic was also the focus of a conference workshop at which participants were asked to help formulate ReMA's comments on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) guidelines for federal procurement of products containing recovered materials. Scrap paper recyclers' primary concerns about the guidelines are whether a distinction should be made among "waste paper," paper with "postconsumer" content, and "deinked paper"; whether mill broke should be considered "waste paper"; and whether sawdust should be included in the procuring agencies' minimum content standards.
Office Paper and Export Concerns
At the production committee meeting, chaired by Tim Hays, United Paper Stock Co. (Pawtucket, R.I.), and Jack Rynbrand, Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Co. (Holland, Mich.), one of the liveliest discussions was on white office paper recycling programs. Although such programs can be profitable, participants identified problems inherent in them, including a lack of markets. In addition, attendees said, some businesses are reluctant to separate their white paper from colored ledger. Some of this reluctance can be overcome through education funded by a program setup charge, one participant offered, but others voiced opinions that mixed ledger could become the predominant office paper grade of the future.
Committee members also expressed concern about maintaining quality when using waste haulers to collect office paper, with Hays noting that he's seen results from such arrangements range from "pristine" to “something you're afraid to even touch." Small containers, one attendee pointed out, can keep contamination to a minimum by isolating bad loads.
Containers of a larger type were among the topics of discussion at the foreign trade committee meeting, chaired by Bryan M. Nielsen, Nielsen& Nielsen Inc. (Pomona, Calif.), and Alexander F. Valdes, Omnisphere Corp. (Miami), at which members examined strategies for obtaining reasonably priced container space for paper exports. Although the group concluded that there's no simple solution to this problem, members suggested that working one-on-one with the shipping lines and lobbying the legislators that oversee the Federal Maritime Commission could help.
The committee also discussed quality requirements of various export markets, concluding that each country has a different contamination concern it tends to concentrate on.
New Challenges
Just weeks before the PSI Conference, ReMA's board of directors agreed to establish a PSI Chapter with the same rights and obligations as the association's 23 geography-based chapters. The group's executive committee fulfilled one of the most important of these obligations--election of a chapter president--at the Orlando conference. William A. Nielsen, Nielsen & Nielsen Inc., agreed to vacate his seat as chairman of ReMA's nonmetallic division to become president of the PSI Chapter. Jonathan Gold takes his place as chairman of the nonmetallics division and also was chosen chapter vice president. In addition, Wayne DiCastri, Pioneer Fibers Inc. (Minneapolis) steps into Gold's former position as an additional director on ReMA's board and takes on responsibility as chapter treasurer. Other PSI Chapter officers are Secretary Leonard Englander, Sunbright Waste Paper Co. Inc. (Waco, Texas); Director-at-Large Victor Storelli, Durbin Paper Stock Co. Inc. (Miami); and Director-at-Large Steven Zamkov, The Marcus Paper Co. (New Haven, Conn.).
In his last speech as nonmetallic division chairman, Nielsen offered his view of the state of the scrap paper industry, noting that government intervention in the secondary fibers industry has caused oversupply and will be the biggest challenge facing paper recyclers over the next two or more years. "The only way to keep government out of our businesses," he said, "is participation."
A similar call was heard from ReMA First Vice President Arnold Gachman, Gachman Metals Co. (Fort Worth, Texas), who compared individual lobbying efforts to the civil rights movement. "Individuals can make a difference," he said, adding that if you don't involve yourself, you may not survive.
While the industry is also facing pressure from increasing acquisitions of paper recyclers by players new to the field and public demand for magazine and telephone book recycling, Nielsen emphasized that insufficient pulping capacity for available supply will continue to result in low values for secondary fibers. Looking at the bright side, he said, if all capacity that promises to come on-line does, "it will be a sweet 1994.” •
The relationship between the scrap paper industry and legislative attempts to increase paper recycling was a hot topic at the recent PSI Conference.