Paper Cuts

When an in-plant “goes green,” recycling paper waste is typically among its first initiatives. After all, the waste has to be removed anyway, recycling doesn’t require a large capital outlay and, in the words of many, “it’s just the right thing to do.” Plus, once upon a time, shops found that it really paid (literally) to recycle paper.

“It used to be that you could take your trimmings to a recycler, which would weigh the waste and pay you for it,” recalls Joe Morin, manager of Production Printing for Colorado Springs School District 11’s Business Services division. “Later, the recycling plant would give you a big dumpster, pick up [the waste] and still pay for it.”

However, times have changed for some.

“Now it costs us to recycle our waste,” Morin declares. “EPA regulations for bleaching and de-inking have made recycling a much more expensive process, so now we have to pay the recycler.”

The cost is minimal, about $100 to $200 annually, Morin calculates.

“It really isn’t much considering the amount of trimmings we have,” he acknowledges. “Nevertheless, what used to be a source of revenue for us is now an expense.”

Tony Seaman, director of Printing and Graphic Services for the University of Mississippi, has also noted changes in paper recycling.

“At one point in time, when I worked at another facility, we used to separate paper into white and printed paper waste, would bale it up and would get quite a bit of money for recycling it,” he remembers.

It’s different now at the university. The in-plant sends all of its trim to a centralized recycling center, which transports all campus waste to a recycler.

“There’s no compensation for the in-plant, but it doesn’t cost us anything, either,” he notes.

Some in-plants do get compensated for paper sent to a recycler. Last year, the in-plant at the University of Texas-Austin generated $44,000 in revenue from recycling paper and metal plates. The California Office of State Publishing earned $289,000 over a 12-month period (and the recycler installed its own baling system).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ printing division—which has been recycling its waste paper for about 30 years—still receives payment for its efforts, but the amount is nominal.

“The recycling operation just about pays for itself,” assesses Craig Sedgwick, the division’s director. “We divide our waste paper into three categories, and then sell it to a broker who gets it to the recycler.”

Seaman has observed only “a few pockets of resistance” to recycling at Ole Miss.

“The biggest issue was scheduling pickup in a timely manner,” he comments. “We have huge recycling bins, but we can fill those up very quickly and people didn’t want to see overflowing bins. The university has resolved this issue completely, though.”

In addition to recycling waste, in-plants are also employing a number of tactics to reduce paper waste and overall usage. Joe Morin recommends consulting with customers on print design, and looking at different paper sizes to find the best fit for production and mailing. He also reports that his shop uses software to clean and certify mailing data, which results in less returned or undeliverable mail, and paper and postage savings.

Tony Seaman states that the University of Mississippi is choosing e-mail over paper memos for communications and handles its entire payroll electronically.

“For recruiting, we still send mass pieces, but now are also targeting recruits more specifically, which has reduced paper use and mailing costs,” he adds.