If you recycle at one of Flathead County’s seven rural blue-bin recycling container sites located in Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Creston, Coram, Kila, Lakeside, or at the county landfill, paper recycling just got easier.  The same new rules also apply when you recycle at the blue recycling bins located at the following stores; Albertson’s, Tidyman’s, and the Salvation Army Store in Kalispell, and Evergreen Square in Evergreen.  All of these drop-off recycling sites are managed by Valley Recycling of Kalispell.  Please note, however, that paper sorting rules for recycling at drop off sites in Whitefish or at North Valley Recycling in Whitefish and Pacific Steel and Recycling in Kalispell have not changed.

Here’s what changed at the 11 recycling drop-off sites managed by Valley Recycling:  paper sorting for recycling can now be done by making two piles rather than four or five. In one pile you can mix newspapers, magazines, phone books and office paper -- including all white and colored paper, file folders, mailings, index cards, fax paper, envelopes (with or without windows), notebook paper, carbonless paper, and computer paper.  In the other pile goes cardboard, both corrugated cardboard and cereal box type paperboard.  Brown paper bags from grocery stores can also go in this second pile.

New sorting rules for paper recycling were recently announced by Valley Recycling. Valley Recycling is one of four recycling centers in the Flathead and it is located just west of Kalispell on US Hwy 2.  Valley Recycling made these changes to its paper sorting and recycling guidelines in response to the fact that their vendor pays them the same amount for these types of paper whether they are sorted or not.  Schools, clubs or individuals who want to get paid for the paper they collect can still receive the $0.005 per pound currently paid for these mixed papers when sorted.  Cardboard brings   $0.01 per pound. (Other valley recycling centers report that it is still more cost effective for them to have paper sorted into four-five types as some types of paper are more valuable than others in the markets they sell in. See WasteNot web site below for sorting guidelines.)

About 32-40% of all material entering the Flathead County landfill consists of paper products and most of that paper is locally recyclable!  According to paper industry web sites, about 50% of paper used in the US is now being recycled and more and more paper goods contain recycled paper fibers.  This is great, but clearly we can do better when better than a third of what goes into the county landfill is paper.  The only paper that can’t be recycled locally is food-contaminated paper, paper used for personal hygiene, paper that is layered together with other materials like plastic and foil (as in a juice box), or paper/cardboard that is wax coated (as in some produce boxes, to-go cups, or cardboard milk cartons). 

Paper can be recycled seven times.  Each time it is recycled and made into new paper products the original fibers break down and get a little shorter.  You can feel the difference in paper strength when the fibers are shorter; as with a paper egg carton in contrast to a new corrugated cardboard box.

Paper recycling is something we can all do more of, but keep in mind there also are real benefits from reducing the amount of paper we use.  Businesses can realize significant savings.  To illustrate, Citigroup, a large financial services company, determined that if each employee used double-sided copying to conserve just one sheet of paper each week, the firm would save $700,000 each year.  In another example, Bank of America cut its paper consumption by 25% in two years by increasing the use of on-line forms and reports, e-mail, double-sided copying, and lighter-weight paper.  Locally, a 1996 waste audit conducted at the Flathead Valley Community College Continuing Education Office collected 112.5 lbs of paper over a two week period, of which less than 1.5 pounds were not locally recyclable, and only one single sheet of paper had been copied on two sides.

For more great tips on reducing paper use or on recycling paper and other products visit these web sites:

Map with locations for local drop-off recycling sites: http://www.valleyrecycling.com/bin_locations/index.html

Learn where and how to recycle in the Flathead Valley and much more:

http://www.wastenotproject.org/

Reducing paper use at work:

http://www.moea.state.mn.us/campaign/workplace/index.html
http://www.usmayors.org/USCM/recycle
http://eetd.lbl.gov/Paper

Local Recycling Centers:

Valley Recycling, 257-2574, Pacific Steel and Recycling, 755-7128, North Valley Recycling, 862-4381, and New World Recycling 863-9311