Save the Planet! Even if it’s just one tree at a time!

Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products.  Here at The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, we recycle office
paper, as well as newspaper and plastic.

Recycling paper at your business has never been easier.  There is no longer the need to remove staplers or even envelopes with clear windows.

Paper products are the single biggest component of the municipal solid waste stream, making up 38.1 percent of the material land-filled in the U.S.  Effective paper recycling efforts can help conserve landfill space and natural resources and preserve biological
diversity by reducing the call to harvest timber from wild areas.  Paper, cardboard and paperboard are widely recycled.  Nearly 42 percent of the 87.9 million tons of paper discarded has been recovered for recycling.

Conservation Benefits of Paper Recycling
Every ton of recycled paper:
Conserves the equivalent of 17 trees worth of lumber
Saves 7,000 gallons of water
Cuts pollution by 95 percent
Saves 11 barrels – 462 gallons – of oil
Saves more than three cubic yards of landfill space

From past residential and commercial recycling alone in the U.S., paper recycling conserved nearly 624 million trees, 256.9 billion gallons of water, almost 17 billion gallons of oil, 110 million cubic yards of landfill space and prevented 2.2 billion pounds of air pollution.

There is no reason why businesses shouldn’t use recycled papers, other than cost.  They print as well as virgin papers, work well on laser printers and can divert millions of pounds of printed waste away from the landfills and back into the mainstream.  Recycled papers save our valuable natural resources, save energy, save our trees, create less toxic bi-products and help our over-crowded landfills.  Using recycled papers with the highest percentage of post-consumer content helps even more. The government mandates 20 percent post-consumer recycled fiber to be considered recycled.

Arkansas recycled 1.9 million tons or 40.2 percent of its waste in recent years.

So, how does our community stack up when it comes to recycling?
The week of July 14 the city of Hot Springs recycled:
109 lbs. – Aluminum Cans
6,217 lbs. – Newspaper
467 lbs. – Corrugated Cardboard
17,820 lbs. – Yard Waste
900 lbs. – Scrap Metal
167 lbs. – Phone Books
The number of pounds of paper recycled was unavailable.

Let’s all work together to make the Natural State a better place to work, play and live.  For more information on how you can “Keep Arkansas Beautiful” visit:
Keep Arkansas Beautiful at http://www.keeparkansasbeautiful.com/
Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification Commission: http://www.hsgcbc.com
City of Hot Springs Sanitation: http://www.cityhs.net/departments_sanitation.html

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