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Paper Waste Issues According to statistics, forests are being cut and trees are being felled at an unimaginable rate of 100 acres per minute to produce paper which is normally used and disposed with no much thought. True enough, most of the solid wastes seen in offices, particularly in universities and colleges, are papers. Moreover, paper accounts for one-fourth of the volume of waste in landfills. When it breaks down in a landfill, it converts to methane, which produces twenty times more greenhouse-gas emissions than carbon dioxide. Paper Industry in the Philippines According to a recent study, the Philippines produces different kinds of paper and paperboard product which include newsprint, printing and writing paper, corrugated material, carton board, sack paper, tissue paper and other wrapping paper. The paper consumption and production of paper products has a total number of 793,000 tons. While on a different study, paper waste constitutes nineteen percent (19%) of the total municipal solid waste production. The proposed solution With these high value of paper waste produced by our country, conceptualizing a sustainable and effective solution is very critical in diminishing the environmental problems caused by too much waste production. One of the solutions proposed is the waste paper collection and recovery scheme where eco-aides go from house to house to collect old newspapers and sends them to junkshops. Eco-aides are either contracted by junkshop owners or NGOs involved in recycling. They will be provided with seed money and pushcart by junkshop owners. The junkshop owners can also choose to employ sorters to sort waste papers collected before delivery to paper dealers and granting a contract to paper dealer to collect waste paper from institutions. Concerns in paper waste recycling During the operation, the junkshop owners found out that there was no existing segregation of waste at home and other source (schools, offices, etc) and the eco-aides are not allowed to enter residential subdivisions to collect old newspapers. They also have concern about their funds since they do not have enough capital to buy recyclables. While for waste paper dealers, concerns were also raised when they found out that price could be the same or cheaper than local waste paper. Another is that the junkshop owners spray water (to add weight) on waste paper before delivery to dealers. Although there are still pressing issues regarding the proposed scheme, it still has showed potential in addressing the problem on paper waste.
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4 Comments
The environmental problems associated with paper are, Deforestation, Air pollution, Water pollution, Wood pulping process etc.. Paper takes many forms, and the chemicals and energy used in its manufacture, and the by-products itcreates, all vary. Even recycling processes aren??t standard.
The paper making process also generates large amounts of solid waste which must be disposed of, most notably the sludge from thefillers, coatings, wood fibres etc.
Recycled paper is the greenest option overall :)
Posted 28-09-2014 18:58
Thank you for sharing your ideas Rohan and Arushi. :) It's true, paper waste here is becoming a problem here in our region. In our department alone, we produce lots of waste from thesis papers. Thus, we initiated a project (Project NOWTBUKS) that would somehow extend the useful life of paper. Will tell you more about it in my next reports. :)
Posted 10-09-2014 20:40
Thanks for highlighting such a major issue, Mary. But, I believe, if people are a bit more careful they can save this thousands of tons of paper going to landfills. Specially in commercial establishments & residential complexes paper can escape the bin by sorting at the user's end.
This will definitely fetch some money for eco-aides as well.
Posted 10-09-2014 14:13
Idea of eco-aide collecting waste paper and giving to junkshops or NGOs is very good. But the tricks like adding water to paper to increase the weight of papers before giving to dealers-are very bad and should be discouraged and checked. It's like cheating , wastage of water and time. Thanks for highlighting paper wastage , Mary. I am equally concerned about it and in my capacity I took a small initiative to put in place a paper segregation & collection system within our building to save paper from adding to landfill . I had posted a report on it , you may read the same at :
http://tunza.eco-generation.org/ambassadorReportView.jsp?viewID=10252
Posted 08-09-2014 20:52