Sustainability assessment and pathways for U.S. domestic paper recycling

Abstract

Dramatic changes in global recovered paper markets, triggered in large part by Chinese import restrictions, challenge the U.S. to find sustainable pathways for increasing the domestic paper recycling rate. This study presents a technology-rich process model of the U.S. domestic paper recycling industry to assess the energy consumption, carbon emissions, and system costs. A scenario analysis shows the viability of three potential pathways for achieving the national goals of a 15 % increase in both the paper recycling rate and the recycled paper utilization rate. The results suggest that the national goals can be achieved by recovering 80 % of recyclable papers from households and commercial stores, while trading all exported bales to domestic recovery with additional investments in processing capacity expansion. The deployment of advanced technology can enable material recovery facilities (MRFs) and paper mills to produce most recycled paper products that are more energy efficient with fewer CO2 emissions.