As the article in the url below notes, it appears that one upside to the COVID-19 lockdown is the revival of the recycling market, at least for paper and cardboard:
"Junk mail and discarded delivery boxes have turned into a hot commodity as the paper industry uses them as a substitute for recycled office paper, which became scarce as people work from home."
This is a marked improvement on most of the articles I have read about recycling over the past couple of years – ever since China stopped being willing to take our waste (see Strategic CSR – Recycling). Now, instead of worrying where to ship our recycling and avoid throwing it in the landfill (e.g., Strategic CSR – Recycling):
"U.S. paper and cardboard mills are figuring out how to turn that trash into new toilet paper, coffee cups, paper towels and cardboard boxes. And they have more material to work with as people order more food and packages to their homes during the coronavirus."
It seems that the underlying reason is there is now an increased supply of waste paper caused by our sudden increase in online shopping. But, it is not simply a case of greater volume, but more that the increased volume has affected the ratio of clean to dirty waste that is ending up in the paper recycling bin:
"Many U.S. mills long avoided paper from curbside recycling programs. The low quality of paper mixed with glass, cans and household trash made it difficult to turn into new paper and cardboard. … But better screening for contaminants and the rising share of e-commerce delivery boxes in recycling bins have made that mixed paper more attractive, operators say."
It seems that the increased percentage of Amazon boxes is more than making-up for the lack of paper we are recycling at the office while "most office workers stay home." And, as we might expect, if there are sufficient market indicators as encouragement, for-profit firms are responding with investment, which should produce greater efficiencies and even more reasons to increase the amount of waste that is recycled:
"Georgia Pacific, whose consumer brands include Dixie cups, Brawny paper towels and Quilted Northern toilet paper, invested about $45 million at mills in Green Bay, Wis., and Muskogee, Okla., in recent years to produce pulp that contains more paper recovered from recycling programs, including coffee cups. Fine screens were added to pulping equipment at the plants to filter out the polyethylene plastic films inside coffee cups that prevent them from leaking but also make them harder to turn into pulp."
In short, the market is working as it should. Firms will do what we ask (i.e., incentivize) them to do:
"The overall collection volume from U.S. residential recycling programs is up at least 7% from last year at this time, thanks in part to the mountain of delivery boxes piling up on doorsteps, according to the Solid Waste Association of North America. 'We're more than happy to see it. We've said this is valuable material,' said Brent Bell, vice president of recycling for Houston-based Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest trash collector."
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2020
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Delivery Boxes Bring New Life to Recycling
By Bob Tita
November 18, 2020
The Wall Street Journal
Late Edition – Final
B1, B5
