| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 97 14:34 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Paper Recycling (Matt Hickman)
February 12, 1997
Dear Matt Hickman,
In general, many of the wastes from making virgin paper are also produced in making recycled paper, only less of it. In addition the deinking process leaves a residual sludge. Most of these are classified as nonhazardous and are disposed the way virgin paper sludges are, usually in lined landfills. CO2 is released in manufacturing with waste paper moreso than it is with virgin materials.
FOR OCC: About the same amount of NOx is produced in virgin and recycled manufacture. More SOx for virgin, significantly more CO for virgin, significantly more CO2 for recycled.
FOR OWP: Virgin production produces far more sludge and consumes far more energy. Virgin production produces 6x as much CO2 as recycled remanufacture and only slightly more NOx. It produces 2x as much particulates and 24x as much of Hazardous Air Pollutants. Virgin production produces 3x as much VOC. Equivalencies are present for SOx production and BOD production.
The place to go for LCAs of the paper waste stream is TAPPI (Technical Assn. of the Pulp Paper Industry). It s 1994 Recycling Symposium, had several papers on the subject, including an LCA for OCC.
Another specific document to get a set of paper LCAs from is:
The Paper Task Force: Recommendations for Purchasing and Using Environmentalloy Preferable Paper (1995) which can be obtained from the Environmental Defense Fund at 212-505-2100.
-- Research Library for RCRA