High Yield

Ask a dozen paper mill buyers what they need recyclers to do to supply bales and grades of paper that provide good yield and the answer is the same: Give me good stuff.

Many of those same buyers are also quick to say recyclers are drifting away from the expected quality. While most agree that the problem has several causes, it is the recycler who ships the material to the mill—and the recycler who will feel the heat if it is off-grade or contaminated.

When it comes to poor quality, paper buyers’ fingers sometimes point to single-stream programs. About three-fourths of the material that comes into single-stream collection systems is paper fiber.

There is a disconnect here, though. Those collecting paper trumpet the quality of their ONP (old newspapers). Mills, on the other hand, find objections. This is especially true of mills making paper for food packaging.

Complicating matters, more office paper may also be running through single-stream processing systems.

KEEP IT CLEAN. The basic fact is this: paper buyers want clean, high-grade fiber. A recycler has yet to build a good reputation selling contaminated feedstock to pulpers. But buyers are becoming more selective and cautious about where they do business.

For Nini Krever, Traders International Corp., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. the whole question comes down to one word: trust.

"You have to know who you are dealing with and forge a relationship built on trust," she says. Traders International does a huge amount of overseas business—and the difficulties are magnified when material goes offshore.

Unfortunately, buyers, municipalities and researchers say that the trust component is fading fast in segments of the industry.

Excuses abound for poor quality. "It’s not my load." Or, perhaps, "We don’t pack that grade" (See sidebar). Such excuses do not cut it with Krever, who has also served as an officer of the Paper Stock Industries (PSI) Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI). For her, repeat business is based on visits to the packer, accurate product descriptions, continuity and dialog.

"We want to know if the mill changed anything…if the printer has a new job…if anyone introduced anything to the paper that was not there before…if the baling is the same," Krever says. Open dialog prevents surprises, and surprises are almost always bad in the papermaking business.

SINGLE STREAM. A general feeling among some mills is that single-stream collection is the root of many of the evils in the paper market. In California, the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency had a study done by Conservatree’s Susan Kinsella and Gerard Gleason. The San Francisco-based organization started first as a paper distribution company, from 1976-1997, and today is a nonprofit organization dedicated to converting paper markets to environmental papers. Conservatree’a March 2003 study for Sonoma County looked at the pros and cons of single- vs. dual-stream collection.

The study concludes that 75 percent to 80 percent of the material that comes into single-stream collection systems is paper fiber. Some MRFs say their fiber is clean enough to be sold as #7 or #8 news (ONP). However, the study finds wide agreement that specifications are slipping and that quality is not as high as ISRI standards require.

Because of suspicions such as these, many recycled paper manufacturers don’t like to use materials from such programs.

"While single-stream collectors chart their success by the quality of ONP they produce, newsprint mill representatives described serious problems with using the fiber; even those mills that have added equipment to further sift and sort fibers before use," the report finds.

Shawn Lavin, senior vice president of marketing with Recycle America Alliance (RAA) in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., says RAA recognizes the challenge. "There are a number of challenges," he says. "First, to increase the recovery rate. Second, to lower the cost of collection. And third, to maintain or increase quality."

Lavin notes that single-stream collection provides significant savings to operators and reaches more deeply into the collection stream.

He says RAA’s parent company, Waste Management Inc., landfills material that has to be viewed as RAA’s growth area. Yet Lavin acknowledges volume is not the whole story and quality is key.

Janet Kincaid, manager of fiber recovery and utilization with the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Washington, says the actual recovery rate from recycled paper stock is the least of a mill’s concerns. The big concern is quality.

"You can’t make paper from glass," Kincaid says, noting that one of their member companies spent a half-million dollars last year replacing equipment that was damaged by contaminated paper.

"Single stream can be a huge problem. If products are not separated properly at the MRF, it can be a tremendous problem," she says.

Typical pulp yield in a pulp made from scrap paper vs. one made from wood chips tends to be pretty high, but it drops with each re-use. Virgin paper will yield about 95 percent of what wood chips would yield. On the next go-round, the yield might drop to 92 percent and so forth.

"That is the least of our worries," Kincaid says. In fact, most paper manufacturers would gladly trade a few percentage points in yield for a clean, contaminant-free bale.

Kincaid notes that packaged food companies like Kellogg Co. cannot afford the slightest contamination their paper stock.

Lavin and other recyclers are quite familiar with the points raised by the paper industry. "We spent the last six months of last year doing self-analysis, trying to see ways to do the job better," Lavin says.

BACK TO THE SOURCE. Recyclers and mills agree that clean paper starts at the source. "We have found that properly educated consumers will sort material properly," Kincaid says.

Today, municipalities find themselves strapped for cash. Many have turned to commingled pickup since it is faster. However, the end product is not as clean as source separated. As a result, it fetches less money.

"The haulers are presenting to the municipalities that citizens want easier pickup and convenience," Kincaid says. That means not source separating.

However Kincaid maintains that is the wrong way to go—and points to many cities that have made source-separation work. "If there is a culture in the city that embodies an underlying environmental awareness and there is the correct amount of education, it will work," she says.

Kincaid acknowledges that some single-stream programs are excellent and some dual-stream programs have significant quality problems.

Kincaid points to programs in such diverse areas as Palo Alto, Calif.; St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn.; and Ridgewood, N.J., as proof that a well-educated consumer will properly sort papers and will be faithful about putting the material out on the curb for collection.

"Those cities know their biggest market is paper," Kincaid says. "They’ve been collecting it and had profitable programs for years," she continues. "To not do it is almost anathema—un-Earth friendly." In fact, recovery of OCC and newsprint typically runs more than 70 percent. Mixed paper and office paper are recovered at a much lower rate, nor is the quality as high.

Companies like RAA are trying to change that. Lavin says mechanical solutions are a key to success. "We’ve spent a lot of time and money evaluating equipment," he says. RAA is in its third generation of equipment. About half of its locations are upgraded to third generation machinery, and Lavin says they get out virtually all of the glass and other contaminants. The problem exists at some smaller plants where insufficient volume has yet to justify major expenditures.

At such sites, Lavin says, the secret is to look at the stream coming in, review the attitude of the people at the plant and educate the supervisors and the laborers.

The evaluation process looked closely at belts, belt speeds and how material was spread out on the belt.

"Quality is now in the same echelon as safety for incentive," Lavin says. Plants that meet quality goals are financially rewarded, and the information goes back to the paper plant.

WHAT MRFs CAN DO. Almost every paper mill owner will declare that the MRFs have to do more to give them a clean product.

More than the end product is at stake. Worker safety and consumer safety are issues; so is equipment life. Glass gets into the gears and bearings of equipment and clogs screens, some critics note.

Glass is not the only villain. Plastic bags and newspaper wrappers create headaches. Many paper handlers get so much plastic that they now bale plastic residue.

Mills and MRFs do not always use