The Waste Paper Stream

Although there are no provincial waste composition statistics, paper and paper products typically make up about 40% of the municipal discard (waste + recycling) stream. Waste composition studies for Regina and Saskatoon (1996) indicate that paper is 40% and 38.6% of their waste streams respectively.

Within the paper waste stream, a considerable amount is corrugated cardboard (see table below). Office paper and mixed paper are also significant.

Corrugated cardboard (OCC) is the material that most shipping boxes are made of. Retailers estimate that 85-90% of their waste stream is OCC.

Newsprint (ONP) is mostly newspapers. Many recycling programs collect glossy paper from flyers and magazines in with the newsprint. Glossy materials used to contaminate the recycling process but now their clay content is needed for new de-inking technologies.

Office paper refers to computer printouts, copy paper, and bond paper. Most of this high grade paper is made from chemically pulped, bleached fibre. Office paper generally has longer fibres than ONP or OCC.

Boxboard is type of board which cereal boxes and kleenex boxes are made from. The fibres are fairly short and it is typically made with considerable recycled content. It is often included in mixed paper because its short fibres limit its recycling options.

Mixed paper is everything else—coloured papers, envelopes, card stock—and has typically been worth the least. Some recycling mills have changed their processes so that they can substitute mixed paper for other grades when prices are high.

In 1999, Canada's recovery rate for paper was 42 percent, that is, 42 percent of all paper consumed by Canadians was recycled into new paper products. Given Canada's large land mass and relatively small population, our recovery rate compares favourably with that of other countries.

(Source: June 2001 WasteWatch)

Back to Paper main page

Back to Resources main page

Back to Home page