Recycling Matters
Winter 1996
FEATURES:
Recycling, Confidentiality and Anonymity . . .
Why recycling is superior to the landfill for disposing of private documents.
Reused Envelopes Save Money and Reduce Waste
Recycling Milk Cartons and Juice Boxes
View from the Curb
Paper recycling rates reached an all time high this fall. From July through November 1995, we recovered 633 tons of paper, up 14.6% from 552 tons during the same period last year. We attribute this, in part, to the simplified sorting requirement we now have for paper. A retrofit in our collection method to use front-loading dumpsters, also enabled us to expand storage capacity at many buildings, and to pick up more paper per day for recycling. More paper is not always necessarily better. Reducing the use of paper in the first place, and using it wisely, are our best options.
Recycling, Confidentiality and Anonymity
![[Image, Bags of Shredded Paper]](/grounds/recycle/pictures/Shredded_Paper.GIF)
Lately, we have received several inquiries about the handling of "confidential" papers. In some cases, records are required to be shredded or incinerated. This usually applies to medical records. Most times, however, the inquirer just wants to make sure that nobody will have an opportunity to rifle through the papers on route to a final destination. In these instances, shredding may be excessive and unnecessary. If you are in the latter group, the following information will explain the security of recycling.
There is a common misperception that putting paper in the "regular garbage" is more secure than the recycling bin. This is actually not the case. With recycling, you are guaranteed that the paper will at some point be destroyed-- its paper fibers ground up into a pulp and bleached to be turned into something new. With waste disposal, the paper is simply buried, intact, and is never destroyed.
There is more security in recycling, as the recycling path is a more "anonymous" process than trash handling. The objective of recycling is to collect and gather a large volume of a relatively homogeneous material--paper-- to create feedstocks for industries that create new paper products. The objective of waste management is to collect a large volume of a non-homogeneous material--waste or garbage-- and deliver it to be buried in a sanitary landfill.
From the recycling bin on your floor or hallway, paper is transported by a custodian to the large recycling dumpster (which holds between 2-8 cubic yards of paper) at your building's loading dock. From there, it is emptied via automated mechanism into a truck which holds 34 cubic yards of paper. From there, it is dumped onto the floor at the Material Recovery Facility along with over 50 tons of other papers, and fed by a conveyor belt into a baler which compacts and bundles paper into 800 pound bales.
The bales are loaded onto semi-trailers and shipped to a paper mill, where they are fed into a pulper which grinds the paper down, adds water, removes inks, adds detergents and bleaches, and forms the fiber into new paper products. No evidence of the original paper, or the information it once housed, remains. To find a specific sheet of paper along the way would truly be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
On the other hand, papers that are discarded with the regular garbage follow a less secure path. The garbage cans in your office and hallways are emptied by custodians and brought to trash dumpsters or compactors at the building's loading dock. From there, trash is emptied into a truck, delivered to a transfer station where it dumped onto the floor with tons of other trash, pushed into a semi-trailer, hauled to a nearby landfill, and dumped onto the open face of the landfill. Only at the end of each day is the waste buried over with a layer of dirt or foam. The paper is never destroyed.
Paper is a very small segment of the material found in our waste. Office paper sticks out like a sore thumb among the bags of food waste, bathroom waste, laboratory waste, paper cups and coffee grinds. It would be harder to locate a specific sheet of paper among a ton of other papers than among a ton of garbage. Recycling is not just good for the environment and our budget; it also ensures the destruction of the papers you discard.
There are several ways you can increase the security of paper put in the University's recycling system. You can bring papers directly to the recycling dumpster at the loading dock (and avoid the bin in your hallway or office). You can bring paper down just prior to the emptying of the dumpster by our recycling truck. This way, the paper does not sit around on campus for very long. Call Waste Management Services at 763-5539 for the specific collection schedule from your building.
If your papers are truly "confidential," your department must make their own arrangements for shredding. If you have your own shredder, you can put sealed, clear bags of shredded paper into any blue recycling dumpster on campus. (Waste Management also has a listing of local companies that will pick up and use shredded paper as packing material or animal bedding.) If you don't have a shredder, there are several commercial vendors that collect confidential paper directly from offices for off-site shredding. However, this is usually a more costly approach.
Reused Envelopes Save Money and Reduce Waste
Most departments receive mail in large mailing envelopes of 9x12 inch size or larger. These are often made of kraft, white or manilla paper, and sometimes a plastic material known as Tyvek. The paper envelopes can be recycled in the University's program, however, a better waste management option is to re-use the envelopes for outgoing mail. This can be done simply by covering up the existing address information with a new address, and applying new postage. The U.S. Postal Service offers these suggestions for obliterating the existing information:
- Address labels can be covered up with another address label.
- A meter strip can be used to cover up an existing meter strip. A blank label can be used to cover up existing stamps, cancellation marks, permit imprints, or metered postage. New postage can then be applied to the blank label.
- Stamps may be applied over a cancelled stamp; however, confusion may arise concerning cancellation marks. It is better to completely cover over any previous markings.
Waste Management staff regularly re-use large envelopes in this manner. If you are using UM Mail Services to apply postage, be sure to cross out or cover up any cancellation marks. You can let recipients know that you are conserving paper and costs with a pre-printed message on your address label. (This is easily done by feeding Avery label sheets through your laser printer.) Waste Management's label says "Reuse envelopes: reduce waste and save trees!"
Adapted from "Waste Reduction Tips" Sept/Oct 1995, Environmental Newsletters, Inc.
Recycling Milk Cartons and Juice Boxes at UM
Two recent additions to the "Containers" Recycling category at the University include milk cartons and juice boxes, also known as "aseptic" packaging. Containers are collected from recycling carts found at most building loading docks, along with glass bottles, aluminum and steel cans, and plastic bottles.
The growing usage and popularity of juice boxes in the past decade has been somewhat controversial. The top "innovation" of the food industry became the bane of the waste management industry. According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study, 500,000 tons of used milk cartons were generated in the United States in 1990. Between 35,000 and 40,000 tons of aseptic boxes were generated in 1992. According to industry figures, Americans consume 4 billion juice boxes and 17 billion milk cartons each year. Considered "wasteful" by some, the industry was prompted to start up programs to recover and recycle the boxes.
According to the Aseptic Packaging Council (Washington, D.C.), there are environmental benefits to the boxes. For example, the weight of a single-serve package, as a percent of the total contents and package, is lowest for aseptic cartons when compared to aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles. In other words, it takes less weight of packaging to hold the same amount of beverage. (They do not make a comparison to refillable containers such as a thermos.) According to the Council, the practical box shape enables more efficient packing than bottles or cans; more beverage can be delivered per truck load, thus saving fuel and reducing vehicle emissions.
Milk cartons are constructed from polycoated paperboard, a high grade white paper covered on both sides with polyethylene plastic. This provides the carton with its stiffness and strength, and liquid tight properties. The carton shape is efficient for shelf storage, and allows for printing nutritional and product information directly on the package. Juice boxes have a similar construction, with an added thin layer of aluminum that allows a vacuum seal to be applied to carton and contents. This eliminates the need for refrigeration.
Milk cartons and juice boxes are collected by the University and delivered to the Ann Arbor Material Recovery Facility, where they are sorted, baled and then shipped to an end user. According to Tetra Pak, one of the larger manufacturers of the boxes, "the recycling process for milk cartons and drink boxes is not difficult compared to other recyclable materials. There are fewer steps involved with recovering usable pulp from drink boxes than from newsprint and other papers that require de-inking. This is because drink box graphics are painted onto a layer of polyethylene that separates during pulping." The literature does not state whether the polyethylene or aluminum layers are recovered during the process.
Now that most types of packaging are accepted for recycling, consumers have more choices when purchasing beverages. A few Ann Arbor businesses still offer milk for sale in returnable, refillable bottles. Otherwise, consumers are faced with a choice of paper milk cartons or plastic milk jugs, both of which are collected for recycling. Juices and non-carbonated beverages come in many packages: glass, plastic, aluminum, steel and cartons. Consumers must decide which package works best for them. (Note: The Fall 1994 issue of Recycling Matters featured a discussion of plastics recycling. At the time, only #2 plastic bottles and jugs were accepted. We now accept #1 and #3 plastic bottles as well. The Winter/Spring 1995 issue featured a discussion of glass recycling. At the time, we asked that ceramics and drinking glasses not be recycled. We now will accept these items, along with all colors of glass bottles, in the Containers category.)
Content modified: August 6, 2001
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