2019 Recycling Industry Yearbook

Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. 36 products or tissue. Pulp substitutes may be shavings or clippings from high-grade papers that come from converting operations at paper mills and print shops. Mills can use pulp substitutes in the place of virgin fiber in producing high-grade paper. U.S. AND EXPORT MARKETS The United States recycled 77.3 million tons of recovered fiber in 2018, slightly more than in 2017. More than 68% of U.S. paper available for recycling was recovered in 2018, reaching a 30-year high. Chinese import policy changes had a significant impact on prices, with the 2018 average price for recovered paper falling 38% from 2017. The United States exported more than 21 million tons of recovered fiber in 2018, up 4% from 2017, to buyers in 92 countries. More than 50% of U.S. recovered fiber exports are corrugated containers. China RECOVERED PAPER & FIBER Paper and paperboard are some of the most widely recycled materials in the world. About 80% of U.S. paper mills rely on recovered fiber to make some or all of their products, due in part to recovered fiber’s significant cost and energy savings compared with virgin fiber. Recovered paper is classified into several broad categories. Old corrugated containers consist of a rippled middle layer sandwiched between two layers of linerboard. News grades contain newsprint, whether from printed newspaper or other uses. Mixed paper can contain discarded mail, telephone books, paperboard, catalogs, and magazines. High-grade deinked paper is high-grade paper such as letterhead, copier paper, envelopes, and printer scrap that has gone through the printing process and then is deinked for sale to companies that will use it to manufacture new high-grade paper RECOVERED PAPER PRICE AND VOLUMES 56.00 61.50 67.00 72.50 $78.00