Nonmetallics

PAPER: Steady Growth Predicted for Paper Recycling

A study of the paper recycling industry in North America foresees steady growth in both supply of and demand for recovered paper. The study, entitled North American Recovered Paper: 1998-2002, was conducted by Jaakko Poyry Consulting, Tarrytown, N.Y. Recovery of scrap paper is projected to grow at an average of 3.7% per year through the year 2002, while mill demand in the U.S. and Canada will grow at a slightly slower 2.8% per annum pace.

The study’s authors do not see the Asian crisis as creating a long-term impediment to scrap paper exporting, with that activity growing an average of 16% per year over the next five years. The export demand should help the paper recovery rate in the U.S. reach 48%, just 2% less than the American Forest and Paper Association goal of 50%. Of the various grades, OCC is seen as the one grade offering the most price volatility while other grades are projected to be stable over the course of the next half-decade.

Recovered paper capacity investments by paper companies have slowed, the report notes, with few significant projects anticipated for the next five years. The secondary commodity nonetheless remains valued by paper makers. "Few companies are in recycling long-term for other than economic reasons," says Jim McNutt, president and CEO of Jaakko Poyry Consulting North America.

PLASTICS: Be Like Mike

For those who wish to practice their slam dunks in an environmentally correct way, Huffy Sports, Sussex, Wisc., offers a product that will help. The company claims to be the only backboard manufacturer in the world to use post-consumer recycled material in its products.

Specifically, Huffy Sports makes backboards from discarded landfill-bound plastics and other materials. The result is a line of products the company calls durable and high-performance.

Huffy Sports has teamed up with Composite Technologies Corp. of Dayton, Ohio, the makers of Polymer Fiber Matrix, a compression-molded thermoplastic recycled resin that is used in the backboards. The first Huffy backboard using the resin debuted in late 1995, but the company now offers several models with the secondary resin.

"We want to help the environment by taking waste out of landfills and also help our customers by offering useful, high-quality, high-value products," says Randy Schickert, Huffy Sports’ vice-president of global operations. "It’s a win-win situation for everyone."