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Why Collect Paper?
Different forms of paper -- including junk mail, newspaper, cardboard and
paper packaging – make up half of a Sitka family's total waste. Paper is becoming increasingly
valuable as an international commodity and can be collected and re-used.
Where and When Do We Collect Paper?
At the Marine Services Center (city cold storage) on Katlian Street. The Center is located near the Petro marine and auto
fuel stations. It is open seven days a week.
Cardboard (and glass) can also be taken to the Solid
Waste Transfer Station on Jarvis Street (near the main P.O.)
What Paper Do We Collect?
Corrugated Cardboard -- should be flattened. Big staples should be
removed. No wet, soiled or waxed
cardboard, such as milk containers. Corrugated cardboard has a wavy section
in the middle of the paperboard. If the wavy section is there, it’s cardboard. If not, consider it mixed paper.
Newsprint -- should be kept separate, dry and free of contamination.
Mixed
Paper -- all other paper including all
colors of office paper, slick paper magazines and advertisements, and paper
food and product packaging. File folders and the tubes from toilet paper
and wrapping paper are mixed paper. Confidential papers may be shredded
(see below) or important information or numbers crossed out. Small plastic
windows in envelopes are okay.
Shredded
Paper – has its own clearly
marked bin. Shredded paper should only be recycled in bags – it is
too hard to handle loose. Workers would rather empty bags than deal with
loose shreds. Shredded paper is the
only paper we ask be put into bags.
Where Does Your Recycled Paper
Go?
The paper will be collected and baled at the Sawmill Cove Industrial site.
It will then be shipped south to a recycler in the Lower 48.
Sitka pays to ship the paper south, but receives money for
the paper from the recycler. Prices on recycled paper vary widely -
cardboard, for instance, has ranged from $40 to more than $90 per ton in
the last year.
There is an increasing international demand for US
recycled paper, especially in China, which has depleted much if its domestic wood fiber
supply and depends on reprocessed paper.
Thank you for helping Sitka reduce waste!
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