Normal Recycling Reduction

The Normal Town Council Report (June 15, 2009) includes information about the local recycling program and mentions that the reduction in the size of the local newspaper, “The Pantagraph,” caused a reduction of 8% in recycled paper. It’s hard to say if the change in the newspaper was the only factor contributing to the reduction of recycled paper because there might have been other factors (also related to the economy): less junk mail, fewer magazine subscriptions as people cut back on expenses, increasing use of electronic documents instead of printed documents, etc. Even so, what other effects might have resulted from the reduced newspaper size? Perhaps people would need more issues of the newspaper to use as packaging in boxes, for lining bird cages (do people still use it for that?), for protecting surfaces during plant repotting/arts and crafts projects/painting, and for puppy paper training. So, in a way, people are recycling newspaper even if they don’t take it to the recycling collection containers.