100. Even at the lower end of the scale where we find the mechanically produced groundwood pulps, the fibers find markets because of certain characteristics that are in demand for specific products. However, the variety of product outlets available to the groundwood pulps is very limited. Although their original production involves comparatively little pollution and high yields, their reuse possibilities are limited.

Admittedly, this strength factor scale is an over simplification when we consider that pulps have many properties and all must be considered in the complex evaluations necessary to determine optimum use in products. However, this scale does give an indication of the reuse alternatives available now. Generally, the higher rated pulps can be placed in a wider range of products than those at the lower end of the scale.

This figure also shows strength factors of pulps which are competing now for acceptance in the commercial pulp classes. At the higher end of the scale are sawdust kraft pulps from both Douglas fir and southern pine. Increasing emphasis has been placed on using these residue pulps in the past 15 years, and they are now becoming accepted commercial pulps for a number of products.

Figure 3. Relative strengths of commercial pulps, fiber from annual agricultural crops, and secondary fibers from mixed waste paper.

Straw and bagasse pulps are shown at the lower end of the scale. These pulps have had very limited use in the United States, but are used widely in developing nations as commercial pulps for paper products.

The strength factor for the average fiber obtained from Madison household trash after the removal of only the major contaminants is slightly above the strength factors for the annual agricultural crop fibers but well below those for the softwood sawdust residue pulps. The position in the graph indicates that this type of secondary fiber may find uses in the products now made primarily with virgin fiber from the NSSC and groundwood processes. It may also find markets in those developing nations which now use lower strength annual agricultural crop fibers.

Farther up the scale is the same fiber mix from household trash, but after a chlorine type of treatment. This indicates that there are ways of increasing strength. The strength of this chemically treated waste paper pulp approaches that of kraft pulps from mixed hardwoods, but is still well below the strength of the softwood kraft pulps now widely used. A greater upgrading of the fiber is necessary to bring it to the point where it can replace softwood kraft pulps and thus effectively make an impact on our timber supply.

During the past few years we have evaluated various separation methods for recovery of waste paper from municipal solid waste, and have studied methods of upgrading the waste paper and the pulps from these papers. In cooperation with the Bureau of Solid Waste Management and the Bureau of Mines, various air separators were tested. We found that clean separation of light and heavy materials can be accomplished effectively by these means. From work at Stanford University, we learned that used newspaper can be separated from old corrugated boxes, indicating that the mixed waste paper can be upgraded by air classification.

Particle size reduction of municipal solid waste, by hammer milling or other means, yields a uniform material for further processing. Dry screening of shredded soild waste has additional possibilities for upgrading the waste paper.

PROCESS EVALUATIONS

To further evaluate the steps that seem necessary to recover and upgrade waste paper from municipal solid waste, a cooperative agreement was signed with the City of Madison. Evaluations will be made at the City's trash reduction plant. A planning group composed of Laboratory personnel and representatives of the City of Madison, University of Wisconsin, and suppliers of industrial equipment has been working on facilities and equipment installation. The installation and evaluations of the equipment will take place in 1971. At the beginning, the recovery sequence will follow closely the steps illustrated by Figure 4.

1. Material receiving & conveying.

2. Particle size reduction.

3. Distributor separation and air classification.

4. Wood fiber products separated by grades including screening and drying. 5. Baling and shipping.

There will be many benefits in having these components assembled for evaluations, but perhaps the greatest benefit will be the ability to obtain large quantities of separated waste paper from this source to upgrade and evaluate in actual paper mill operations. The preliminary work on such an arrangement has been done, and we believe it will lead to improved techniques for upgrading fiber quality to permit greater use of secondary fiber in products where it is now excluded.

Since there are pulping systems available for graded waste paper, we should be able to come up with workable systems to use the wood fiber-based material now thrown away. Burning it, grinding it down to minute sizes, or landfilling it are just not the right longterm answers.

INFORMATION NEEDS FROM RESEARCH

Many of the present recovery systems for waste paper are relatively old. Many appeared during the late 1930's and the World War II years, and many handle 30 to 50 tons of material per day at maximum production. These types of operations are marginal because of the present excess of virgin pulp, and they have little money for plant modernization. They bump right into a major problem every day-much of the waste paper they get contains fillers or other papermaking additives and cannot be processed in their present recovery systems. This paper must be disposed of as waste, resulting in environmental problems.

Thus, many of the additives put into paper and paper products for water resistance, strength improvement, and for other reasons become the contaminants the secondary fiber industry must contend with to reclaim the wood fiber. This industry has been battling contaminants such as latex, wax, plastics, inks, asphalt, and others for years, and fears the new problems that may be coming next. It is important that we learn more about the characteristics of the variety of additives now used in paper production, so that these materials can be reclaimed in some form for reuse, along with the wood fiber. Also, we must develop new kinds of additives that will not interfere with recovery of the fiber from paper products.

If we could effectively separate mixed waste paper by grade, or separate the fiber obtained from it by type, a significant obstacle to increased recycling would be overcome.

We need investigative work on chemical means of separating contaminants from secondary fibers and upgrading the fibers. Chemical methods seem to have the greatest potential for upgrading waste paper fibers to levels now reached only by virgin pulp. Many of the necessary techniques are now part of the European and Japanese waste paper processing systems. We need to learn about these techniques and develop our own technology.

We also need to know more about the quality and quantity of wood fiber available in various types of solid waste and in various areas of the United States.

Research and development are required to find new products that can be produced from secondary fibers, and whose production minimizes pollution of our environment. New products are necessary because much of the secondary fiber does not lend itself to use in products where virgin wood fiber and wood are now being used. However, the development of such products will be useless if it merely opens new markets in which virgin fiber and wood would want to compete.

Among reclamation products with potential as secondary fiber outlets now being investigated are: (1) Protein, with the cooperation of the Bureau of Solid Waste Management; (2) paint and resin extenders, also in cooperation with the Bureau of Solid Waste Management; and (3) animal feeds with the FPL Wood Chemistry Division, the University of Wisconsin, and the Beltsville, Md., group in the Department of Agriculture.

CONCLUSIONS

We must plan now and begin to execute plans for increased use of secondary fiber. The sociological reasons for increased wastepaper recycling and reclamation are clear, and the pressures are growing. There is little point in waiting until we must launch crash programs necessitated by environmental degradation. Much more is required than improving collection systems and fiber upgrading techniques, because the fiber obtained must find markets, regardless of the systems used.

There are two major technical information needs related to markets. We must find ways of putting secondary fibers that can be upgraded into existing products to supplement softwoods and softwood virgin pulps. Uses that do not lead to greater environmental problems must be found for secondary fibers that cannot be upgraded for utilization in existing products.

For an increase in secondary fiber use to become a reality, a large increase in new plant facilities will be necessary. Sufficient capital flow to accomplish this will not be available unless a real demand for secondary fiber products is apparent to justify the expansion.

Problems of increasing the demand for secondary fiber could be alleviated in a number of ways. For instance, demand could be created through Federal, State, and municipal government purchasing policies, many of which now exclude secondary fiber in specifications for paper and paper products. Changes in this area seem justified, whether they are for sociological reasons or to help build the technical-industrial base of secondary fiber use in anticipation of what will happen inevitably if paper is to continue to play a significant role in our lives.

Another market possibility is export of waste papers that have been degraded to levels that do not permit their ready reentry into United States markets. These fibers could find markets in developing nations that are woodpoor, because they have strength properties better than those of annual agriculture crop fibers now used to manufacture many products in these countries.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. I appreciate your being with us.

At this time we will be glad to hear from the Committee on Paper Specifications on the study of the use of recycling paper currently engaged in by its Technical Subcommittee.

I might state at this point that this is a matter that has been actively considered for quite some time by the Joint Committee on Printing. It is not new by any means. The Joint Committee last April directed its Committee on Paper Specifications to conduct a comprehensive study of the subject. Because of the collective experience and responsible positions in Government held by its members, the committee is certainly competent to come up with the right answers. We are delighted to have their spokesman with us today. At this point I wish to recognize the Honorable Adolphus N.

Spence, Public Printer, who will introduce Mr. William K. Wilson, spokesman for the Committee on Paper Specifications.

Mr. Spence, will you kindly proceed with any remarks you may have, and then introduce Mr. Wilson?

STATEMENT OF HON. ADOLPHUS N. SPENCE, PUBLIC PRINTER, U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

Mr. SPENCE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As an employee of Congress, naturally I have a definite interest in carrying out the desires of the Congress and certainly I share with the Congress the desire to reduce this unconscionable amount of waste that is being generated throughout the country.

To that extent, I, at the request of the staff director of the Joint Committee on Printing, loaned the services of our top technician in this field, Dr. Hobbs, to work with the Joint Committee on Printing. You, as the chairman of that committee, directed the Technical Subcommittee to advise your committee in this area and I assigned Dr. Hobbs full time. He has been working diligently to come up with a report with the other members of the subcommittee and today I have a member of that group, Mr. William Wilson of the National Bureau of Standards, who has a statement to make on the progress of that subcommittee.

Thank you, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much.

Mr. Wilson, we are delighted to have you with us. Proceed as you wish.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM K. WILSON, NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. ROBERT B. HOBBS, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

Mr. WILSON. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Chairman, I am William K. Wilson, a member of the staff of the National Bureau of Standards, but today I am representing the Committee on Paper Specifications of the Joint Committee on Printing.

The conservation of trees, the reduction of solid waste, both designed to improve our national and world environment, are goals of obvious merit every person can enthusiastically adopt and promote.

The Joint Committee on Printing, with its statutory responsibility and long experience in establishing standards of paper for the different descriptions of public printing and binding, directed its Committee on Paper Specifications last April 27 to complete a comprehensive study to determine what practicable steps we could take to assist.

Actually, preliminary work in this area had been developing for at least 6 months prior to that date, due to the general interest demonstrated in Congress, in the executive branch, by the American Paper Institute, and by the National Association of Secondary Materials

Industries.

When this study was implemented, it was noted immediately that this entire field is very complex. Although the study by the Committee on Paper Specifications is incomplete, the following facts emerge.