Local and national programs have begun a massive paper recycling effort, to the point where more paper is now recycled than is thrown in the trash, according to an industry trade group.
In 2007 alone, 56 percent of paper used in the United States was recovered for recycling according to paperrecycles.org, an paper industry organization that advocates recycling.
Massachusetts still throws away 1.6 million tons of paper every year, Mass Recycles Paper campaign chairwoman Claire Sullivan said.
“We throw away more paper than we recycle,” she said. “One-and-a-half million tons of paper in the trash costs businesses and residents almost $100 million a year.”
Sullivan, who also serves as the executive director of the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, said she has seen a positive change in the ways Boston and surrounding towns approach recycling paper and other products.
“SSRC has promoted the use of new programs like ‘pay-as-you-throw’ and ‘single stream recycling,'” Sullivan said.
Single stream recycling has been a success in towns like Weymouth, Mass., where residents no longer have to separate their recyclables. Weymouth threw out 195 fewer tons of waste in July 2008 compared to the same month in 2007, saving an estimated $80 per ton, according to the SSRC website.
The growing drive to recycle in local towns is far from self-sacrificing, Sullivan said.
“When it hits people in the pocketbook, they realize they should recycle,” she said. “We have a long way to go, so whatever breaks people of their habits works.”
In the past year, Boston began a similar program to SSRC called “Recycle More.” The program has begun single stream recycling in many neighborhoods in Boston, including Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, West Roxbury, the North End and the South End, Mayor Thomas Menino’s spokesman Nick Martin said.
In the South End alone, recycling has increased 143 percent and trash has gone down by 19 percent in the last four months, Martin said.
“The easier the city makes it to recycle, the more responsive people are,” he said. “Boston is the leader in the state in recycling.”
Adam Mitchell, a Boston University graduate and partner of Save that Stuff, Inc., a waste management company serving thousands of businesses including BU, said recycling is making more financial sense in the city, as well.
“Business owners are starting to realize they need to join in and conserve,” he said. “It’s all about the economics.”
Red Sun Press business manager Nancy Nichols said the drive to be environmentally friendly is not always based on economics. The independent printer has been using recycled paper and implementing other environmentally safe practices since the mid 1980s, Nichols said.
“Recycling is just the obvious thing to do,” she said. “It just turns out to be cost effective, but that shouldn’t be the main point.”
Individuals should be responsible for recycling, but it is up to leaders to make big changes, Nichols said.
“It takes people with power to educate citizens about recycling and how to save the environment,” she said.
John Ullman, the founder of Ourearth.org, a website with interactive features for users to post environmentally friendly events, said individuals are starting their own programs to do their part.
“People are recognizing the importance of their local community’s health,” Ullman said. “When they can’t find services in their town, you see people make things happen. People are starting to make a difference.”