Paper Recycling Supplement -- The Paper Chase

The fax machine, e-mail and the World Wide Web have taken their bites out of print-on-page communication, but the use of paper is far from a relic of the past.

Currently, paper mills remain hungry for secondary fiber as a feedstock, and aggressive recyclers are beating the bushes to roust up the fiber they need.

HELPFUL REMINDERS

The climbing old newspapers (ONP) recycling rate in the U.S. indicates that municipal programs have helped recyclers keep this grade moving toward mills.

Additionally, Michael Sullivan, a general manager with Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., Houston, says residential recycling program managers can increase their haul by taking old magazines (OMG) along with the ONP they’re already collecting.

Speaking to attendees of a session at the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) Annual Congress, which took place in mid-September in Austin, Texas, Sullivan urged recycling coordinators to add OMG to the mix.

With the ONP recycling rate in the U.S. having zoomed from 30 percent in 1990 to 65 percent in 2001, recyclers and mill buyers are looking for additional furnish. Sullivan says the feedback from most mills is positive toward including OMG. "They like it," he remarked.

Papermaking and recycling consultant Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, Atlanta, says machinery at many pulping mills has been modified to take in OMG as a feedstock. "Prior to about 1992 there was a different technology (at mills) that couldn’t tolerate magazines," Moore told Recycling Today. "But flotation de-inking requires 10 percent to 30 percent magazines in the furnish."

According to Moore, many residential collection programs need to be modified to catch up with this technological change. "A lot of the collection programs started before this demand for OMG came about," he notes.

The potential for OMG collection growth is considerable, said Moore. "ONP might be recovered at 65 percent, but the OMG rate is still less than 30 percent," he remarked. "In an average pack in a residential program, OMG runs only 3 percent to 5 percent. Given the opportunity and enough education, the typical household could produce a 15 percent OMG rate. That would satisfy most mills’ need for OMG."

While magazines may be sought after, Sullivan noted that boxboard is still unwanted, at least at newsprint mills. "Our biggest quality issue comes from boxboard in the mix," Sullivan told the NRC attendees.

Referring to boxboard in the mix and other single-stream collection issues, Sullivan remarked, "Newspaper publishers are pushing us for quality, and the recycled sheets are having trouble keeping up. As an industry, we can no longer be lackadaisical about ONP quality."

According to Moore, emerging paper grades are also allowing aggressive municipal programs to harvest more scrap paper. Moore credited Seattle as a city where municipal officials are pushing haulers to tap fully into the commercial generation pool—especially in segments not traditionally served by independent packers

"I think it’s a natural," says Moore. "The small commercial segment is an under-recovered area. Big plants and stores are recovered, but what we don’t get are strip malls and multi-tenant office buildings. It’s hard to set up and talk to so many small tenants. But if they can pack all their grades into one dumpster and make a commercial mix, that’s a natural. And it’s a pretty good grade for containerboard mills, as well as paper board and possibly tissue."

A company Moore credits for its aggressive approach is Visy Recycling’s Conyers, Ga., operation. Visy Recycling executive vice president Jeff Kibler and his staff procure material for Visy Paper’s Conyers mill. "The company has a philosophy to be completely self-sufficient; to collect as much paper as we can at the generation source," says Kibler.

"One of the things we did is bring some technology from Australia (Visy’s corporate home) that lets the mill run OCC and mixed grades as feedstock. We also run corrugated medium and liner on the same paper machine," he notes.

The unique pulping technology allows the company to collect mixed grades that save time and sorting for generators. "We are trying to do our best to collect 100 percent of our own paper or have it under contract. One of the ways to accomplish this has been aggressively collecting mixed paper.

"What I came up with is a program where we’re aggressively out there collecting mixed paper consisting of anything that tears, including phone books and magazines. If you can tear it, we can take it is our motto," says Kibler

The company has been calling on businesses of all sizes, "from nail salons to carry-out stores to large generators," explains Kibler. Visy is currently running 32 trucks collecting 7,000 bins placed throughout the Southeast, in markets such as Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Nashville, Birmingham and Atlanta, with all material except excess OCC going to the Conyers mill, according to Kibler.

THE MIND-SET

The aggressive pursuit of scrap paper is not necessarily the stated aim of every company in the business. Some recyclers tend to shrink back from the market when pricing and demand goes.

However, a number of company leaders say they have survived and prospered by remaining aggressive through all manner of topsy-turvy market conditions.

"We have a philosophy, in place over the years that we have been in business, to handle scrap paper whether markets are up, down or backwards," says John Ockenfels, president of City Carton Co. Inc., Iowa City, Iowa. "The reason is that quite simply we’re selling our customers on the concept of stability and service. We tell them we’re going to be there in a good market or a bad market, so the service has to be there in a good market or a bad market. The only thing they see is the price change, not a change of service."

Ockenfels says the philosophy is also critical on the mill side, where key customers have come to depend on City Carton as a consistent supplier of furnish. "It’s certainly a consideration. We’ve had a handshake agreement with a lot of mills that we’ll keep shipping to them as long as their prices are fair, whether pricing is going up and we could figuratively hold them to the fire, or when it’s down. It’s a gentleman’s agreement on volume, and most of the mills we deal with are pretty honorable about it," he notes.

Marty Davis, president of Midland-Davis Corp., Moline, Ill., notes that the just-in-time philosophy adopted by mills has also made it important for packers to have adequate supply on hand. "A lack of supply was a fear in June and July," Davis recalls. "Chinese mills were buying heavily and we had the long Fourth of July weekend. Everyone was worried about no supply coming in for four days. Some of these mills are running on just a few days of inventory so they always face the threat of running out."

Davis, who is also president of the Paper Stock Industries (PSI) Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), says he has noticed that most of that group’s member firms take a similar long-term view on aggressively staying in the fiber market. "ISRI members as a whole are optimistic [about the industry] by nature, and aggressive in procuring scrap materials in nature," says Davis.

Davis says of his company, "We’ve put in equipment to draw out tons that might not make sense at the time. But the one thing about this business is, you have to have control of raw material. If you have control of the material, you will have something that you can process and sell and make money on."

Ockenfels says City Carton has a similar attitude. "We have a tendency to seek out what ever paper is available," he remarks. "We’ll go anyplace and do what we need to do to go get it. In cases where the volume is low . . . we’ll charge a fee."

On the municipal side, Moore credits Waste Management Inc., Houston, as a solid waste hauler that has taken a similar approach to ferreting out maximum recyclable tonnage. "They’re the municipal collector that appears to be the most energized on a large-scale basis."

WHERE TO LOOK

Recyclers scouring for additional material have come up with several techniques to bring in added tons.

One of the most popular methods has been to create document destruction divisions. The Sutta Paper Co. (see profile starting on page S19) is among those that has procured additional office grade material by shredding confidential documents, as has City Carton. "We own a documents destruction business, and that gets more volume out of smaller offices," says Ockenfels.

City Carton has also found a way to accept more difficult-to-market materials from clients with diverse paper streams by producing fuel cubes made from scrap paper and byproducts that are not wanted by pulping mills.

"We’ve got a separate fuel cubing operation where we take non-recyclable paper products and make those into a cube for boiler fuel," explains Ockenfels. Among the materials that are converted into the fuel cubes are wax-coated corrugated cardboard, plastic coated papers, filters with synthetic fibers, and scrap paper containing UV inks or rubberized glues, according to Ockenfels.

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted via e-mail at btaylor@RecyclingToday.com.