To the editors:
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Paper is not the same as glass, metal, or plastic: it cannot be melted and cast over and over again. To make recycled paper, a huge investment in machinery must be made ($40 million or more), large volumes of water used (inevitably tainted with dangerous chemicals), and the outfall (unrecyclable wastes containing ink, heavy metals, dioxins, et al.) landfilled.
Each time waste paper is reclaimed, its fibers become shorter, less useful. The end product eventually becomes tissue, egg cartons, dunnage–products which must be landfilled. Cycles of virgin fiber are saved but the real cost may be out of proportion to the savings.
We have discovered in the last two years that government agencies are of no help and venture capitalists have no interest in funding a demonstration project even though we have potential customers who want to sell or use this new product.
