Recycling paper has become popular worldwide

Over 95 million metric tons of paper are recovered each year and made into recycled paper and paperboard. Recovered paper fiber makes up over one-third of the total fiber used to make the world’s paper.

The United States is the world’s leading paper recycler, responsible for over one-third of all the paper recovered in the world.

• More paper and paperboard packaging is recovered for recycling than all glass, plastic, metal and other materials combined.
• 75% of all corrugated material and containers are recovered for recycling.
• 68% of all newsprint is recovered for recycling. About one-third is recycled back into newsprint. The rest is made into other products including cereal boxes, corrugated boxes, books, insulating materials, tissue, egg cartons and animal bedding.
• About 66% of the raw material used to make paper in the U.S. comes from recovered paper that is recycled, and the wood debris left from lumber manufacturing.
• More paper is recovered than is sent to landfills.

Here’s how post-consumer recovered paper is used: unprinted paper becomes toilet and tissue paper; printed white and colored writing paper becomes recycled copy paper; newspapers and magazines are used again for newspapers and magazines; and packaging material like corrugated boxes are used to make recycled packaging materials. Recovered paper can also be used in related products like egg cartons, wall insulation, roofing and animal bedding.

Statistics provided by TAPPI (Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry)