nt rate Paper scrap consumption may rise significantly in the 1980's if a projected shortage of virgin pulp occurs, and new technological developments prove their worth. The use of high-density balers facilitates the handling of paper scrap and provides a better product. These balers cost about $120,000 and can handle 30,000 tons of paper a year and reduce freight costs up to $5 on trips of 500 miles. This can be economical only if a business has sales approximating $600,000 or more a year. In 1963, 88 percent of P1,120 companies in this business had sales under $500,000, but a centralization of these businesses has been taking place. The Federal Government, through the General Services Administration (GSA), has changed its specifications for certain types of paper and paperboard products it purchases-principally packaging papers, paperboards, and tissues—to require the inclusion of varying percentages of waste fibers in such products. This is expected not only to spur the purchase of a wider variety of recycled paper products, but also to help stimulate the market demand for papers containing post-consumer waste. The GSA does not have specification or purchase responsibility for printing papers or most types of office papers. These are under the jurisdiction of the Joint Committee on Printing of the Congress, which is studying its policy on this subject. Under its program, the GSA has divided the sources of reclaimed or recycled fibers into two classes: Part I is commonly referred to as post-consumer waste; i.e., paper, paperboard, and other fibrous wastes after they have passed through their end-use as a consumer item. Principal among these are used corrugated boxes, old newspapers, old magazines, mixed waste paper, and tabulating cards. These wastes are collected prior to entering the municipal solid-waste stream. However, any other paper, paperboard, or fibrous wastes which enter into and are collected from municipal solid waste also would qualify under part I. Part II wastes, as defined by the GSA, include paper or paperboard wastes generated after the completion of the papermaking processes, including such things as envelope cuttings, and obsolete inventories of paper and paperboard. Also included are fibrous byproducts of harvesting, manufacturing, extractive, or woodcutting processes such as flax, straw, linters, bagasse, chips, and other forest residues. In some instances, the GSA requires certain percentages of both part I and part II type wastes, while in others, there is no requirement for any post-consumer (part I) and waste. A chart showing the sources of fiber consumed by paper paperboard mills follows this discussion on paper recycling. There are a number of cities today involved in voluntary separation and collection efforts. Here, waste paper is usually segregated and collected in three categories-corrugated, newspapers, and mixed papers, which include magazines. collected by Newspapers and corrugated paper products are municipalities because they can be easily separated and are readily accepted by recycling mills. Magazines and mixed papers are primarily collected because they are available in large quantities in centralized locations (office buildings, factories, et cetera). Currently those cities with successful recovery programs are concentrating on recovering old newspapers from residences-before contamination-for established markets. A 4-year-old, sustained paper collection program is operating in Madison, Wis. There, sanitation department trucks collect bundled newspapers put out by residents on a voluntary basis. Collections are made with regular compactor trucks equipped with special racks to hold discarded newsprint during normal refuse collection. So far, participation in the program has been high, and the system is beginning to show a profit. Of the more than 3,000 tons of old newspapers collected in the city of Madison over a 2-year period, the largest portion has been repulped, deinked, and made into newsprint. A small portion was shredded and used in the manufacture of insulation material for homes and commercial buildings. The remainder was used in the production of combination paperboard. Similar municipal recovery programs are taking place in Hempstead, N.Y., and Louisville, Ky. In Hempstead, as in Madison, newsprint is bundled by residents and collected on the same day as the rest of the solid waste. However, Hempstead uses a separate compactor truck to travel normal collection routes, picking up only newspapers. This one truck covers about five regular collection routes, compensating for the use of expensive equipment and additional labor. In Louisville, an experiment similar to Hempstead's is being undertaken where newspapers are picked up by separate trucks within various neighborhoods and shipped to processing plants for deinking and repulping. Such voluntary separation and collection systems depend greatly on their being recycling mills in the area. 346 I.C.C. For the paper that does get into the solid-waste stream-and is thus contaminated—there are other means which hold promise for utilizing its value, while reducing the solid-waste volume. One interesting demonstration resource recovery facility is in operation at Franklin, Ohio. Developed through a demonstration grant from the EPA and operated by the Black Clawson Company, the system processes some 40 tons of refuse each day to extract paper fibers in addition to separating out glass and metals. The recovered fibers are presently sold to a local company for use in the manufacture of roofing felt. Further processing, cleaning, and bleaching could upgrade the fibers for use in paper production. One paper company has experimented with this urban fiber and has produced printing paper from it. Another promising use of paper and other organic components of the solid-waste stream is for the energy values represented. A ton of shredded organic refuse has about one-half the BTU value of a ton of coal. Utilizing this portion of trash and garbage cannot only reduce the amount to be disposed of, but can save valuable and depletable conventional fuels. This spring, the city of St. Louis, the Union Electric Company, and the EPA began a demonstration project to combine daily some 300 tons of mixed municipal refuse with coal to generate electricity from power plant boilers. Other examples of converting mixed municipal refuse into heat and energy are: (1) Chicago's Northwest Incinerator, which is producing salable steam from burning refuse, and (2) the Combustion Power Company's CPU-400 system, which is designed to process some 400 tons of refuse daily while generating more than 10,000 kilowatts of electricity. Further uses for paper and other organic waste components include composting, high-protein animal feed, and land filling. As paper is biodegradable and compactable, it is a useful and desirable component for efficient sanitary land fills. Paper is also a desired component in conventional incineration, not only because of its combustibility, but because it absorbs the moisture found in other components of municipal waste. Despite the continuing developments, however, we do not find any persuasive support for the allegation that increased freight rates on scrap paper will affect its movement for the purposes of recycling. We, therefore, conclude that the maximum 3-percent increase approved in our prior report as to rail rates on waste paper will not have a significant adverse effect upon the environment. 30 J Textile waste. The environmental issues in regard to waste textiles movements center upon whether, or to what extent, high freight rates or freight rate increases have inhibited, or will inhibit, their movement. More specifically, the statement of Mr. Edward B. Frankel of NASMI in this proceeding contains the following contentions: 1. "Freight rate increases totaling approximately 40 percent within a few short years in the face of declining markets and market values have prevented over a billion pounds of these materials from 2. "Had freight rates not increased at all on [these] commodities, the revenue would have increased to the carriers by 58.59 percent by virtue of the same proportionate share of textile waste produced and recycled in 1970 as in 1964. In other words, had the industry been allowed to market the increased supply brought about by the population explosion, the rail carriers would have benefited much more than by having increased rates on these low valued commodities to the point where they are of such major consequence as to preclude movement.' 9983 The following assertions are made in support of the above contentions: (1) Only about 520 million pounds (below 3 percent) of discarded textile wastes amounting to 1.2 billion tons are sorted each year, and only a small fraction moves by rail; (2) freight rates at prevailing average length-of-haul (as shown in the 1966 1-percent waybill sample) and minima per car are so high, in addition to processing costs relative to value of the commodity, as to preclude movement; (3) transportation costs make make up a substantial percentage of the delivered costs of low-grade textile waste, as compared with the higher grade textile wastes (wiping rags) referred to in the railroads' statement; (4) textile waste traffic fell off 40 percent from 1966 to 1969, in official territory as a result of rate Increases, while in the South where, assertedly, the carriers recognize" value of service factors, traffic rose 4 percent; (5) rate increases have a substantial impact on the environment because, for Verified statement No. 376 of NASMI in Ex Parte No. 281, March 12, 1972, part II, p. 1. 2. The fact is that if rates had not been increased between 1966 and 1969, and the 1966 loading characteristics had prevailed, the rates would have been below out-of-pocket costs for 1969, and the railroads would have been worse, not better off. Ibid., The rate examples used on page 3 of the cited statement at 65 cents at 40,000 pounds, 58 cents at 50,000 pounds, 564 miles-would only barely have covered variable costs in 1969 in official territory (the applicable territory of that tariff) and failed to cover full costs. Thus, it Would have caused the railroads to lose money-to subsidize the waste textile shippers. appears that a rate low enough to make the processing of used textiles in the example profitable, |