r-
Where recycling demand
exceeds supply
By Bill Moore
P
I
A
F
c
T
he small volumes of magazines
being collected understate heir
value to the recycling industry.
Before 1990, old magazines (OMG - the
recoveFed paper gade contaning magazines)
were a low-value c o m m d t y used mostly as
a filler in recycled boxboardproduction. Only
in heated recovered paper markets were the
easily obtained newsstand-retum magazines
routinely recycled. All of that has changed
over the last decade, with the rapid rise in
recycled newsprint production and the spread
of flotation deinking technology that requires
grades of old cormgated containers (OCC)
and old newspapers (ONP), magazines are
recycled at a relatively low rate. The future
availability of this high-quality, mechanical
fiber is not going unnoticed by the paper
industry. Earlier this year at the Canadian
Pulp and Paper Association’s Annual Recycer, commented on magazine
tated, “We must concentrate
e large quantities of coated
as of yet, not recycled (sic)
e and catalog/directory paper
ade of mechan-
inaccurately called groundwood, is sourced
from a high-yield pulping process such a$that
used in producing newsprint. Many years
ago, newsprint was produced primarily via
the stone groundwood pulping process, literally grinding up trees using stones to produce
a low-cost sheet for printing newspapers.
Over the yem. North American stone groundw d capacity has been replaced almost completely by thermal mechanical pulping (TMP)
and fiber recycling. Chemical pulps represent the other large category of paper fibers
produced by a more process-intensive
approach, removing almost all of the lignin
from wood fibers to produce papers with high
brightness that do not yellow. Mechanical
pulping results in a sheet that still contains
large amounts of the natural lignin present in
trees, hence their tendency to yellow with age.
Mechanical fibers for the production of
magazines must be extremely high quality
to successfully accept the coatings that produce a high-quality printable sheet. For magazines, these coatings generally consist of a
mixture of minerals, with clay the predominate material.
These mineral coatings, which can make
up as much as 40 percent of the sheet weight,
are both a plus and a minus in the recycling
process. Literally, the clay coating of magazine paper is what has made it a desirable
material for recycling into newsprint. Flotation deinking. widely introduced into the
newsprint recycling sector in North America
during the 1980s. requires materials such as
clay to efficiently deink the sheet.
Before the late 1980s. most newspaper
recycling occurred using a process that washes the ink oft‘the fibers. This process consumes large amounts of water. and is somewhat less efficient than flotation deinking. In
the flotation deinking process, micro-fine bubbles of air are used to attract ink particles.
which are floated away from the fiber in the
newspaper recycling process. The clay acts
as a nucleation site to which the ink and bubbles adhere. Today’s state-of-the-art newspaper recycling is a mixture of flotation and
deinking technology.
The OMG grade has two subcategories:
post-consumer magazines and newsstand
retums. The latter are unsold publication!
from new sstands, bookstores, supermarkets.
etc. that are returned to magazine distributors.
They can be a surprisingly large amount of
what is set out for sale. However. over the
last few years, increasing efficiencies in the
distributionand sale of magazines have begun
to cut the volume from this source. Newsstand retums, though sometimes categorizel
as a pre-consumer waste, represent a challenge for recycling similar to post-consume
magazines. They contain glued spines anci
generally have some quantities of plastics and
small amounts of unbleachables (brown kraft
paper).
Post-consumer magazines. such as those
available from households, pose similar challenges for recycling. Most contain some type
of glue binding (the spine). and many have c
variety of non-paper inserts (computer disks
fragrance samples, foils, etc.). The first tlota-
Bill Moore is President of Moore &Associates, an Atlanta-ba\ed consulting firm ensaged in procidinf
a range of market research and strategic services to the paper recycling industry He c m be rexhed J[
(770)5 18- 1890,518-2779 (fax): MARec
)
tion deinknp systems in North America were
unable to process non-water-soluble spines
and depended on coated groundwood sections (uncollated scrap paper from printers)
for the source of coated groundwood.
One other important recovered paper grade
contains magazines -PSI No. 7 ONl? This
grade was developed during the mid-1990s
as recycled newsprint mills became more
comfortable with flotation technology and
began to use this combined old newspapedold
magazine pack [also see ‘‘Commingled Makes
the News(print),” in this issue]. The following are the specifications for this grade:
Consists of baled sorted, fresh newspapers, not sunbumed, containing not
more than the normal percentage of
rotogravure and colored sections. May
contain magazines.
Supply growth is in
residential recovery
As mentioned above, the supply of newsstand
returns has been relatively static over a number of ye=. and now is declining somewhat.
The total tons of newsstand returns are not
expected to increase in the future, and their
recovery rate is essentially 100 percent.
In contrast, the recovery rate of postconsumer magazines from residential waste
is less than 30 percent. Compare this to ONP
recovery rates exceeding 60 percent. and one
can see that the excellentjob in newspaper
recovery has not been translated to residential magazines. Why the difference’? For one.
most early residential recycling programs
were designed to collect only OW, not OMG.
The other factor is that even in proz.rams
designed to collect OMG separately or in a
No. 7 ONJ?grade, the recovery of magazines
,tends to be substantially lower than OW. Ths
is because old magazines are handled differently in households from 0”. People are in
the habit of putting their newspaper into their
recyclables bin daily. Magazines, on the other hand, wind up on coffee tables, bookshelves
and in boxes in the garage; many never get
into the recycling loop.
In 1998, Moore & Associates examined
25 U.S. curbside recycling collection programs that include OMG recovery. The average composition of OMG and ONP in these
programs was 7 percent OMG and 93 percent ONP. Some programs were as high as
20 percent OMG and 80 percent ONP. closer to the theoretical ratio of OMG to ONP
in the household. In close examination of
the communities with higher- OMG recovery, we found an emphasib on magazine
recovery und better public education about
OMG recycling.
The good news. as Donohue‘s Desbians
indicated. is that we will need to raise this low
residential OMG recovery rate to satisfy the
recycled newsprint mill industry’s need for
coated mechanical fiber.
Demand spurs price parity
Sixty-two mills in North America produce
newsprint. Half of these mills have onsite
deinking capacity. Of these 3 1 mills, 24 have
flotation deinking systems and utilize OMG.
Almost all of these flotation deinking systems
were installed during the last decade. This
demand has moved the price of commodity
old magazines. which frequently was worthless in the 1980s. up to a point where it is
approachng price parity with No. 8 O W (see
Figures 1 and 3). Examining the trend line
shows that in the early 1990s. OMG sold for
approximately 40 percent of the price of
No. 8 O W , and by 1998, this had increased
to almost 90 percent.
With the supply of newsstand returns
declining and with moderate growth expect-
The Mac 111 is the
Highest Production Baler
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m R e s o r r r c e Recvcling June 1Y99
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ed
liL,LIzd
tidl ,l,Lig~~/ii-:<
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nrwjpnnt mill capacity. unlesa more residenart' recovered, OMG price, routinely will
(they dlready do in some spot dreaa of North
,111'1'1'
y-
I
,iverape amount of OMG used at tlotation deinking
ONP = old newspapers
>printmills varies from as little as 5 percent to over 30
1
',rcent. The reason for this wide variation depends on the
type of processing equipment at the mill. system throughC
put. and the deinking chemistry utilized. On the positive
0
side for OMG demand. some mills that use higher perL
e,
,:entapes do so because the substrate mechanical fiber is
a
69
'-ici! quality and the clay coating aids in the efficiency of
,heir tlotation systems.
The mills using a higher percentage of OMG also find
that their need to add bleached chemical fiber to the
newsprint sheet is decreased. Traditionally, newsprint mills
added anywhere from 5 to 10 percent bleached chemical
I
I
I
I
I
I
pulp to enhance the strength and brightness of the newsprint
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
sheet. This was either purchased by newsprint mills with
Source: Moore & Associates, 1999.
only mechanical pulping systems or generated intemally
"rom mills that also have chemical pulping systems. Those
> 1 l l [ \ using large amounts of OMG'gei e&igh chemical kraft pulp
sheet. The mineral content of the OMG is carried over pmly into
10111 the magazine sheet that they can cut back drastically or elimthe newsprint and takes the place of purposefully added clay.
IIId[c the need for virgin kraft pulp. Not surprisingly. mills that purOn the down side. old magazines have a poor fiber yield. The
chased bleached chemical pulp versus generating their own tend to
average fiber yield from OMG is approximately 65 percent versus
mn higher percentages of OMG to avoid the purchase of expensive
a fiber yield on ONP approaching 85 percent. The reason for this
yield differential is simple: The large amount of clay contained in
chemical pulp.
We have alsoseen the trend of flotation deinking newsprint mills
the sheet is lost to the deinking sludge. This also leads to generausing less virgin clay, which is used to improve the opacity of the
tion of large amounts of deinking residuals (DIR -sludge) requirY
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ing management. DIR disposal and emerging recovery options
are another story in themselves. However. because clay plays
a beneficial role in actually making flotation deinking systems work, this yield loss is considered part of the price to
pay. Yet, if OMC prices continue their upward movement,
altemative ways might be employed to operate deinking systems, including cutting back on the percentage of OMG and
changing the deinking chemistry.
Historical #10 OMG price as a percentage of
#8 ONP price (annual average, U S . )
Recycled magazine paper
As compared to newsprint, which is readily produced from
recycled fibers, only small amounts of magazine papers contain substantial quantities of recycled fibers. This is due to the
fact that producing recycled-content coated paper is the most
technical and economically difficult recycling challenge in the
paper industry.
2o
High-speed coating of paper (such as in LWC) is a precision process that cannot tolerate even the smallest contami1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
nant. One unwanted spec on a coating blade can ruin tons of
Source: Moore & Associates, 1999.
output before it is corrected, and production efficiency in a capital-intensive operation such as a paper mill is all important.
Some supplies of recycled-content coated grade are available.
Conclusion
but for the most part, it is treated as a specialty grade. Demand has
Old magazines have had quite a ride for the last decade. As recentbeen limited for recycled-content coated sheets (again, as compared
ly as the late 1980s. old magazines barely were recycled. Now. they
to newsprint). which are more technically difficult to produce than
have become an important fiber source for the paper industry. As
recycled-content white commodity printing and writing papers.
demand continues to grow, we must work on mining the relatively
Publisher’s note: For its 18 years, Resource Recycling has been
untapped residential stream. The best way to accomplish this will be
local govemments’ working with mill end users to develop the propprinted on recycled pope6 including coated magazine paper since
1992.
er quality and quantities of supply to meet the demand needs. RR
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Reroitrce Recvclrtig June 1999
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