Access to Community Paper Recycling expands in the US

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The 2014 Community Access Survey conducted by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) indicates that consumer access to community paper and paperboard recycling jumped significantly higher in the US. The access rates stood at 96%, up from 87% in 2010. The survey results are based on 12 different paper and paperboard grades. All the grades under survey showed increased access rates. Nine out of these 12 grades had an access rate in excess of 90%.

Whether measured by the percentage of population or by the number of communities with access, the 2014 Survey suggests that overall access to paper/paperboard collection through community-sponsored curbside and drop-off recycling programs has increased considerably compared to previous survey years.

There were significant increases in the population with access to drop-off recycling programs and curbside collection since the last survey, which translated into an overall increase in the total population with recycling collection access. There were 2,896 communities that responded affirmatively to having access to paper/paperboard recycling that did not respond in 2010. The population of these communities totaled 29,939,283 resulting in an increased percentage of the population with access to paper/paperboard recycling.

The Survey noted that single-stream recycling has continued to grow over the past fifteen to twenty years. The growth in single-stream recycling has steadily increased. In 2005, only 29 percent of the population with recycling had access to a single-stream program. By 2014, that number has increased to 80 percent.