Tag: recycled

A New Life for Old Phones

  • Recellular employee Myron Woods tests phones to see if they can be resold or re-used. Here, he's got a Nokia 6019, the model reporter Shawn Allee dropped off for recycling. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

It’s pretty clear Americans like their cell phones. On average, we get a new one about every
eighteen months. And yet, we hold on to the old ones, too; the government estimates there’re
about one hundred million lying around in closets and drawers. Shawn Allee found people eager
to take your old phones – if only you’d recycle them:

Transcript

It’s pretty clear Americans like their cell phones. On average, we get a new one about every
eighteen months. And yet, we hold on to the old ones, too; the government estimates there’re
about one hundred million lying around in closets and drawers. Shawn Allee found people eager
to take your old phones – if only you’d recycle them:

I put an old phone in a recycling box a while ago.

I checked around and found it went to one of the nation’s largest phone refurbishers.
It’s a company called Recellular. And it’s based in an old auto parts plant in Dexter, Michigan.

“It’s a big open space with a lot of room to handle the 20,000 phones that come in every day.
You need a lot of benches, you need a lot of cubby holes.”

Vice President Mike Newman points to some incoming collection boxes.

“Every box is a mystery. You have no idea what’s in there until you open it up and start
sorting it out.”

Newman’s company is hunting for working phones to resell here or overseas. Before that, his
people sort and test every model of phone.

And workers like Myron Woods remove personal data.

“Contacts, the voice mails, the ringtones, text messages. Hit OK and the phone’s cleared
out. After that you make sure the phone calls out. You get a ringtone, you hear the
operator, and then you’re done.”

Newman: “In 2008 we processed almost 6 million phones and for 2009, we’re looking at
more than double-digit growth again.”

And of those six million phones, Mike Newman says he can sell about half of them. He’d do
better if people like me didn’t keep phones in drawers for so long.

“The longer you wait, the less value it has so, if you move down from that old phone, as
hard as it might be to part with it, it’s really important to recycle it as soon as possible – it
will do the most good.”

What about Newman’s other phones – the duds? He has a different company near Chicago
recycle them.

Allee: “And here they are … holy mackerel.”

I’m now at Simms Recycling Solutions. A conveyer belt is moving thousands of phones.

“There’s the end of the line for your cell phones.”

Mark Glavin is the VP of operations here. He says there’s gold, silver, and other metals in the
phones he gets from Recellular.

“The cell phones get shredded into somewhat uniform-sized pieces.”

Glavin sticks the pieces in an oven to burn off the plastic – and then grinds what’s left.

Glavin: “That’s what’s left of the cell phones.”

Allee: “It’s almost like the powder you use for a baby, except its black.”

Glavin: “Yes.”

Glavin says there’s gold and other metal in the powder – so metal companies will buy it.

He also has stubborn chunks of metal that won’t grind.

“Those get pulled off and then those go to the furnace room to be melted.”

Glavin: “This is appropriately named the furnace room, where all the melting goes on. It
gets nice and toasty in here in the winter time.”

Allee: “Wow, what are we seeing here?”

Glavin: “After the material has been melted, we’ll cast it into molds and into 30-40 pound
ingots.”

He’ll sell metal from these ingots along with that black powder.

Recellular and Glavin’s company recovers about 96 pounds of gold from its phones each year.

Plus, that gold’s worth more than a million dollars. And recycling saves energy, and prevents
pollution from gold mining.

Glavin says recycling is taking off, and he can always count on people wanting the latest and
greatest phones.

Glavin: “Pretty soon your cell phone will be a chip like, on an ear-ring and a watch, and
there’s nothing to it except for a very tiny electronic.”

Allee: “And people will still swap it for the next one.”

Glavin: “Without a doubt.”

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Sagging Mattress Recycling

  • The city of Toronto has started collecting old mattresses at a central recycling center. (Photo by Julie Grant)

One of the bigger things we
throw away are old mattresses. Landfills
are stuffed full of them. Julie Grant
reports that new companies are springing
up to recycle the steel and cushioning
from old mattresses. They say the government
could help, but it’s lying down on the job:

Transcript

One of the bigger things we
throw away are old mattresses. Landfills
are stuffed full of them. Julie Grant
reports that new companies are springing
up to recycle the steel and cushioning
from old mattresses. They say the government
could help, but it’s lying down on the job:

(sound of a mattress factory)

Simon Zysman has been working with mattresses for more
than half-a-century. For the past 16, he’s been running a
business in Toronto that tears old mattresses apart so the
pieces can be reused.

“i’ve only dismantled with my own hands 3,000 used
mattresses and my enterprize in the 16 years has only
dismantled 40,000 mattresses, and therefore i know very
little. I’m just learning.”

Yeah, like Lance Armstrong is just learning to ride a bike.

Now, apparently dismantling mattresses is not a cushy job.

(sound of mattress deconstruction)

Workers pull mattresses from a big pile. I watch one as he
makes a long cut all around the edge, snips material where
it’s connected to the coils. And then pulls the entire face of
the cushioning away from the springs. It’s kind of like
filleting the mattress.

When he’s done, the cushioning goes on one pile. The steel
springs on another.

Zysman sells the different parts to companies in the U.S.
that rebuild mattresses. Other people in the business just
recycle the steel and sell the cushioning for things like
carpet-padding and oil filters.

Zysman used to toss and turn when he thought about the
huge numbers of mattresses out there, but his supply’s not
been steady.

When you buy a new mattress, a lot of times the company
that delivers it will pick up your old mattress. Most
companies just send them to the dump. Only a few pay
people like Zysman to have them dismantled.

Until recently those few have provided Zysman’s only
supply.

But the city of Toronto has started a pilot program to collect
old mattresses from residents at the curbside for companies
like Zysman’s.

“The city’s pioneering mattress recycling program has been
a great boost to us and a great help to us. That is a
wonderful development.”

(sound of a recycling center)

The mattresses the city picks up are stockpiled at a recycling
center.

Bryan Farley runs the city’s new program. He says Zysman
and other people like him are getting paid to keep
mattresses from stuffing the landfill.

“Landfill space in Ontario is a premium. It’s hard to find.
And there are laws and regulations that are more focused on
not putting materials into the landfill.”

Farley figures getting mattresses out of the waste stream will
help the city to meet its ambitious goal of reducing trash by
70%.

Mattresses take up a lot of space. They’re big and bulky and
don’t smash down all that well in a landfill.

South of the Canadian border, in Ohio, Chuck Brickman has
been piecing together a mattress recycling business.

He wishes the government here would help increase the
supply of used mattresses. Brickman can get some from
local hotels and furniture stores, but it’s not enough so far to
run a steady business.

“There’s two companies right now in New Jersey that are
sending 2 to 5 thousand mattresses a month by rail from
New Jersey to a landfill in Michigan.”

Why? It’s cheap.

A few cities and states have special landfill fees for bulky
items like mattresses, but most don’t. So, it’s usually
cheaper just to dump them.

Brickman wants local or state governments to create more
‘incentives’ for the mattresses to be recycled. In other
words, higher fees to dump mattresses.

“It’s easier and more economically feasible for them to throw
them in a couple rail cars and send them a couple states
over because there are no established tipping fees in some
of the Midwestern states like Ohio and Michigan.”

Mattress recyclers say government officials can raise those
fees on dumping mattresses. That would make the mattress
recycling business less of a dream, and more of a reality.

For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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Books With a Green Ending

  • The reporter's husband reading "I Can Save The Earth" to their daughter. (Photo by Charity Nebbe)

Book publishers have always had
a close relationship with trees, mostly
dead ones. Now many publishers are trying
to make nice with the planet by introducing
green books on environmental themes and
often on recycled paper. Charity Nebbe finds this trend has reached the
children’s section of your local bookstore:

Transcript

Book publishers have always had
a close relationship with trees, mostly
dead ones. Now many publishers are trying
to make nice with the planet by introducing
green books on environmental themes and
often on recycled paper. Charity Nebbe
finds this trend has reached the
children’s section of your local bookstore:

(sound of reading)

That’s my husband reading to our three year old daughter. They’re reading “I Can Save
the Earth: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” It’s a new book
from a new division of Simon and Schuster called “Little Green Books.” Simon and
Schuster is not the only publisher trying to take advantage of the modern green
movement.

Melanie Rhodes is a children’s book buyer for Borders.

“I would say, for Fall 08 rolling into 09, I would say this is the one new trend. We’re
seeing Green product, recycled with soy based ink, or a lot of detail on the product saying
it’s planet friendly.”

Rhodes decides what will be on the shelves at Borders for babies and toddlers.

Ruta Drummond buys for the older kids – picture books for 3-7 year olds. The green
books she’s getting are on environmental themes, rather than on recycled paper.

“I’m starting to see titles: “That Litter Bug Doug”, “Michael Recycle”, “We Are
Extremely Very Good Recyclers”.

She’s also seen a few publishers try to claim the green mantle without really earning it.

“There was a publisher with a classic white book, and they said, ‘oh, well, we have a
green version. And they made the cover green. It was a green version.”

Literally green – the content was unchanged, the paper the same. Of course publishers are
in the business to sell books, so they’ll do what they have to do.

Parents who buy the books have another goal in mind. Presumably they want to raise
environmentally aware and responsible children. Can a book help them do that?

Elizabeth Goodenough teaches a course on Children’s literature for the Residential
College at the University of Michigan. She’s not a fan of books specifically designed to
teach kids a lesson.

“We all know that when someone is trying to teach us something, it’s a tough message.
We resist it and it usually backfires, and children don’t get the message that we’re trying
to convey.”

In spite of that, Goodenough does believe that books can influence children as they
develop their worldview – but the most important element of any book is its story. If
nature and the environment play an important role in a great story the kids will get the
message.

Which brings us back to bedtime at my house with “I Can Save the Earth”. The book
may be preachy, and it is, but it managed to capture my daughter’s imagination. This is
her favorite part.

(sound of reading)

The result? I’ve found toilet paper strewn all over the bathroom three times in the past
two days. The book has certainly had an environmental impact in my house and tonight
we’re gonna read something else.

For The Environment Report, I’m Charity Nebbe.

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Recycling Prices Down in the Dumps

  • (Photo by Julie Grant)

The recycling industry is the
latest to take a hit from the world’s
economic problems. Rebecca Williams
has more:

Transcript

The recycling industry is the
latest to take a hit from the world’s
economic problems. Rebecca Williams
has more:

The bottom has dropped out of most commodity markets: recycled paper,
metals, everything. It’s tied to the collapse of economies worldwide.

Tom Watson is with the National Waste Prevention Coalition. He says
recycling companies’ profits are way down.

“A lot of it is connected with China – and the demand for fewer products
there so they need less of the recycled materials for the packaging.”

Watson says China is buying a lot less of our recycled paper and cardboard
to make packaging, because we’re all buying a lot fewer products from
China.

That means recyclables are stacking up in a lot of places. Recyclers are
starting to talk about charging garbage companies to drop stuff off. And that
might mean we’ll be paying higher trash bills.

For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Turning Garbage Into Gas

  • Jeffrey Langbehn beside one his family's hunting catches. He directs the Lake County Solid Waste Management District. His enthusiasm for the outdoors is one reason he says he supports the idea of finding landfill alternatives. The prospect of lower waste-handling costs is another. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

Trash is usually out of sight, out of mind, but occasionally garbage grabs attention – especially when it starts costing a lot. Landfill fees are rising, and with higher costs to ship or truck garbage, a lot of communities are scrounging for alternatives to landfills. Reporter Shawn Allee found one community that hopes a trendy fuel might solve its garbage problem:

Transcript

Trash is usually out of sight, out of mind, but occasionally garbage grabs attention – especially when it starts costing a lot. Landfill fees are rising, and with higher costs to ship or truck garbage, a lot of communities are scrounging for alternatives to landfills. Reporter Shawn Allee found one community that hopes a trendy fuel might solve its garbage problem:

For most of us, there’s nothing less sexy than trash. But in part of Indiana, that’s changing.

“One second.”

“Take your time.”

I’m waiting for Jeff Langbehn. He heads a solid waste district in Northwest Indiana.

Lately, Langbehn’s phone is ringing off the hook – from reporters and colleagues. And why are they calling? Basically, it’s because Langbehn’s county is leaning toward doing something new with garbage – something that intrigues trash bureaucrats, maybe even the one in your town.

You see, Lake County Indiana is this close to letting companies convert most of its garbage into ethanol, you know, to run cars. Langbehn says his landfill costs are rising quickly. In his case, that would be 42 dollars per ton.

“The two garbage to ethanol providers were for $17.50 ton. Those savings alone made our board say, hey, we have to pay attention to this.”

And so Lake County Indiana sat down with the ethanol operators.

“And we asked the hard questions like, ‘are there any of these things operating in the country?’ All the standard questions you would ask.”

Shawn Allee: “Wait a minute, when you asked who else has done this and they said, no one, what did you think?”

“Well, the fact of the matter is that the components are being used, and have been used for a very, very long time.”

Sure, some components of garbage-to-ethanol technology have been around for a while. But, if you ask ethanol producers where they actually turn trash into ethanol, they say they can do it in labs, or in test facilities. That’s got some folks in the trash biz nervous.

“I guess I’d say I’m cautious and wary of using any new technology to process solid waste.”

Jeremy O’Brien researches trash for the Solid Waste Association of North America – a trade group. He’s seen landfill alternatives come and go.

“Early on in the 1970s we tried a number of technologies including composting the waste stream, anaerobic digestion, and then we also tried incineration.”

Of those, only incineration survived, but early incinerators had a nasty habit of spewing toxic pollutants, stuff like dioxin, out their smokestacks. O’Brien says incinerators are now cleaner.

His point, though, is that it takes time to improve technology. He worries some communities bent on turning garbage into ethanol could end up holding the bag.

“The facility could fail early on and they’d be stuck without having a place to put their waste.”

Indiana’s Jeff Langbehn says that won’t happen to his county. He says the ethanol companies will cover their own financing, and the county will have insurance as a backup. But speaking of backups, there already is another landfill alternative, right?

Shawn Allee: “Why can’t we just recycle all this and make it into stuff people buy again?”

“There are a number of people out there that could give a rat’s patoot about recycling. And that’s the waste stream we’re having to deal with. The other reality is, recycling is expensive, so I don’t believe it’s a realistic possibility for us to recycle everything, both from a cost standpoint and a societal standpoint.”

So, Langbehn says recycling helps, but ethanol might do more. He says he kind of wishes someone else would try trash-to-ethanol technology first, but it’s worth testing out.

And he says it might be so cheap he won’t even have to hold his nose.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Peace Out, Plastic Bags

  • Whole foods Store Manager Sherry Wiseman, says her Cleveland store hasn’t had plastic bags since February and her customers have hardly noticed. (Photo by Lisa Ann Pinkerton)

It’s one of the eternal questions, ‘paper or
plastic?’ They’re both recyclable, but only paper
bags come from a renewable resource. And since only
1% of all the plastic bags on earth are actually
recycled, Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports some cities and
even one national company are wondering why we need
plastic bags at all:

Transcript

It’s one of the eternal questions, ‘paper or
plastic?’ They’re both recyclable, but only paper
bags come from a renewable resource. And since only
1% of all the plastic bags on earth are actually
recycled, Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports some cities and
even one national company are wondering why we need
plastic bags at all:

(garbage truck sounds)

Americans send around 100 billion plastic bags to landfills every
year, where they’re supposed to be compacted by bulldozers.

(sound of plastic bag in the wind)

That is, unless they catch the wind and transform into mini
parachutes.

Carmine Camillo is a spokesman for the national company Waste Management.

“The tree lines and fence lines can be littered with bags, until we get
a chance to get out there and clean them up.”

This happens so much around the world, it’s picked up the nickname ‘tree condoms’. Besides that,
they clog storm drains, and
eventually end up in waterways and oceans, where fish
mistake them for jellyfish.

The solution, it would seem, is to recycle them.

But shopper Mary Jo Wickliffe says that’s too much of a hassle.

“You unload your groceries and you go home and throw them away. That’s what I do with them.”

Since Wickliffe shops at the organic market Whole Foods she
says she’s been doing less of that. Because the
chain recently bagged the plastic.

Cleveland Store Manager Chery Wiseman says to stop offering plastic bags is a decision that goes against busines school 101.

“It costs us more money to buy our paper recyclable bags, but we
feel that’s worth it to keep the plastics out.”

Whole Foods’ paper bags are made from 100% recycled content and
shopper Bruce Kane says it’s about time plastic went out of
style.

“I notice that China has fines for stores that use plastics. I think it’s a
positive trend and I’m glad to see it coming to Whole Foods and coming to the
United States.”

The trendsetter in this country is San Francisco. It’s the only city to successfully ban plastic bags.

New York City, Annapolis, Maryland, New Haven,
Connecticut, Santa Monica, and Portland, are looking to shun plastic too. But the bruising the city of Oakland took might make them think twice.

A plastics industry group, called the Coalition to Support Plastic
Bag Recycling sued Oakland over its ban and won. It
claimed the city didn’t do its homework on alternatives such as compost-
able plastic bags or a recycling program.

Sharon Kanise is a spokeswoman for the plastics industry at the
American Chemistry Council.

“We certainly hope that the city of Oakland will work with the state of
California on recycling, because it
doesn’t belong in the roadways, it belongs in the recycling bin.”

Plastic bags are made from petroleum and natural gas, but
Kanise says their manufacture and transport uses 70% less
energy and produces half the carbon dioxide that making paper
bags does.

But for some, choosing between paper and plastic isn’t enough. A few people are starting to shop with reusable cloth bags. Some
stores sell them for about a dollar and Wal-Mart recently gave
away 1 million free to its customers.

But the concept of bringing
their own bags to the store is still foreign to some Wal-Mart
shoppers.

Customer 1: “It really doesn’t matter to me, but I’m going to need a
bigger bag than this.”

Customer 2: “It’s easier just to throw these out and come back to
the store with nothing in our hands.“

Customer 3: “Well, it’s just becoming popular, so I’ll start to.”

Whether it’s paper, plastic, or cloth, each can be environmentally-friendly, if
consumers go to the extra effort. But if people keep throwing them away, local governments might attempt to
reduce plastic bag use. A move the plastics industry will certainly
contest.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lisa Ann Pinkerton.

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Green Weddings

  • Many couples are trying to be more environmentally-conscious with their big day (Photo courtesy of Kentucky State Parks)

At least two million weddings will be held
in the US this year. Many of them will be
extravagant, limousine-led events. But some couples’
walk down the aisle will more like a stroll on an
environmentally-friendly path. It’s known as a green
wedding. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

At least two million weddings will be held
in the US this year. Many of them will be
extravagant, limousine-led events. But some couples’
walk down the aisle will more like a stroll on an
environmentally-friendly path. It’s known as a green
wedding. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

A big budget wedding with limos, large reception halls and high catering bills can put a lot of
stress on the bride and groom. It might get at least one of the betrothed some scream time on
the cable TV show ‘Bridezillas’.

“Alright guys, I need my bridesmaids: Jackie, Amy, Kelly, Andrea, Harley, and Deb.”

But other couples are aiming for a more low-key, ‘we love each other and we love the planet’
approach to their happy day. Some wedding planners are paying attention.

“Again it only holds about 100 people, so you have cut your wedding list down, which is actually
a good thing for green as well, because then you’re not producing as much transportation cost.”

That’s Tanya Van Kirk of the company Point Zero Events. She not only had a green wedding
herself, but now advises couples on their way to the altar on how they can be more energy and
environmentally conscious. She says the green wedding movement is small but growing.

“I’ve had a couple of requests from brides. This is definitely a topic that’s coming up more often,
and I just choose to pursue that option myself, so I’m going to encourage as many brides and
event people as I can to take part in it.”

Van Kirk says a green wedding may be the right thing for environmentally aware couples in a
tight economy. She says besides maybe choosing smaller venues, they might go electricity-free
and use natural light. Other recommendations are: to register for gifts at an eco-conscious store
or website, buy locally-made wedding supplies, and consider using caterers that offer organic
food.

“We use local eggs, organic butter.”

At a recent bridal fair, Lisa Malmarowski of Outpost Natural Foods hawked her store’s version of
green catering. She contends it’s not necessarily more expensive than a regular caterer.

“You can really customize things to people’s budgets. So, if someone wants a very simple
wedding which also sorta fits into a green theme, we can do that very simply. And we’re really willing
to work with people – if they want to use things like their own dishes, or make some of the food
themselves, and we’ll supplement it.”

Some women with weddings scheduled for next year say they are hoping to be as green as
possible.

Katie Spaulding says one of her first steps may be her choice of wedding invitations.

“I like the idea of recycled paper, doing invitations like that. And I know that’s a huge trend right
now, and I’d consider doing that as well.”

Wedding planners warn it can be more difficult to convince the groom to go along with a green
wedding.

But bride-to-be Casey Kircher isn’t having that problem with her fiancé, Chris Verdig.
He seems ready to say ‘I do’ want green.

Chris: “It sounds fantastic. I’m just the groom.”

Casey: “I think that’s his catch phrase – ‘sounds fantastic’ – anything I ask.”

Well, that might be a good start toward their life together. And that green wedding might turn into a green partnership.

For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

(music) “I see skies of blue, and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

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Recycling Goes Postal

  • The US Postal Service is beginning an e-waste recycling program through the mail (Photo courtesy of the USPS)

Many of us just don’t know what to do
with that old cell phone or outdated digital
camera. While some companies take the devices
back, not all do. Now, the US Postal Service
says it’s coming to the rescue. Mark Brush
reports – the post office is developing a free
electronics recycling program:

Transcript

Many of us just don’t know what to do
with that old cell phone or outdated digital
camera. While some companies take the devices
back, not all do. Now, the US Postal Service
says it’s coming to the rescue. Mark Brush
reports – the post office is developing a free
electronics recycling program:

Throwing out an old electronic device is wrong for several reasons. The devices can
contain toxic heavy metals which can pollute the environment. And there are many parts
that can be reused.

The US Postal Service is piloting a recycling program in some big cities across the
country – including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

They’re giving people
free, postage-paid envelopes. You can stuff your old cell phone or mp3 player into the
envelope and drop it in the mail.

It’s delivered to a recycling company called Clover Technologies Group. The company
says it tries to refurbish and resell what it can. If the device can’t be resold, it’s broken
down, and the materials that can be are recycled. The other stuff is thrown in a landfill.

Critics say while these recycling programs are a good first step, the companies who
make these devices should design them so all the parts can be reused.

For The Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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From Coffins to Couches

  • Vidal Herrera recycles coffins, turning them into couches (Photo courtesy of coffincouches.com)

One entrepreneur is testing the limits
of recycling, by turning unused coffins into
furniture. Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

One entrepreneur is testing the limits
of recycling, by turning unused coffins into
furniture. Rebecca Williams has more:

Vidal Herrera used to be a crime scene investigator in Los Angeles. After
he retired he started a business renting out props for shows like the CSI
series.

One of his showbiz clients wanted a creepy couch made out of a coffin. And
so, a business was born.

Herrera says coffins that can’t be sold are usually thrown away. So he
approached funeral directors with the idea of recycling them instead.

He says he removes the insides, adds legs, and puts in cushions to make
a couch. He says he’s gotten a lot of positive responses.

“The Goth people and bikers in tattoos – they really like that stuff. In fact, they
made suggestions- why don’t we make beds, love seats,
file cabinets.”

Coffin couches cost 3,500 dollars a piece. But people are buying them.
Herrera says he’s sold four, with 62 more on order.

For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Book Publishers Getting Greener

  • Logging truck. (Photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service)

The next time you curl up with your favorite book,
you might think about where the paper in the book comes from.
Mark Brush reports on a new trend for the pulp industry that
isn’t fiction:

Transcript

The next time you curl up with your favorite book,
you might think about where the paper in the book comes from.
Mark Brush reports on a new trend for the pulp industry that
isn’t fiction:

It’s estimated that only a small amount of paper in the average book is made up of
recycled content. Experts say a lot of the paper comes from sensitive forests in Canada,
the southeastern US, and Indonesia.

But a new report says publishers are beginning to use more recycled paper.

Tyson Miller is the Director of the Green Press Initiative – one of the groups that commissioned the report. He says some major book publishing companies are doing their part:

“Random House’s policy says that they’ll move from a 3% recycled fiber use rate to a
30% recycled fiber use rate by 2010. That alone will save about a half a million trees a
year.”

Some companies don’t want to use more recycled paper because it’s more expensive. But
Miller says their research has shown that people who buy books are willing to pay a little
extra to save a few trees.

For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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