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.