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Paper recycling. Simplified.

Admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 08:38:14 +0000

RecyclePaperZA shares the ‘golden rules’ for paper recycling.

The Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA) calls on all South Africans – from schoolchildren to pensioners – to do their bit by recycling paper products at school, home and work for drop-off at local recycling depots or gathering by collectors who earn a living by selling it back to mills.

“Paper and cardboard are items we touch and use every day – in the kitchen and bathroom, in the classroom and at the office – from printed copy paper, magazines, flyers and newspapers to cereal boxes and juice and milk cartons,” says RecyclePaperZA operations director Ursula Henneberry. “Millions of people choose to recycle every day, which helps the local paper industry to make lots of new products and create meaningful employment.”

“Ordinary people don’t have much control over pressing global environmental challenges and their capacity to help solve these issues is limited. However, the one thing that we can all do to make a difference is recycle,” she adds.

The benefits are numerous, and it just takes a little bit of effort to develop “good garbage habits”.

GOLDEN RULES FOR PAPER RECYCLING

As a starting point, it is important to remember paper recycling’s five golden rules:

Get to know what paper products are recyclable and which are not.
Separate your recyclables from wet waste. Paper items that are wet (used paper plates) or soiled (tissues and disposable nappies) cannot be recycled.
Take a second to separate any non-paper packaging from paper or cardboard.
Always keep paper clean and dry as this ensures a quality fibre for use in making new products.
Invest in or make a paper-only bin or box for easy sorting.

RECYCLING AT HOME:

Space permitting, you may want to have a few paper bins around the house.
Decide what you want to do with your recyclables – have them collected or drop them off?
Strike up a conversation with a waste collector in your suburb and make an arrangement to have them collect your paper and cardboard on a convenient day.
Keep a box or crate in your car so that you can do a weekly drop-off on the way to work or run other errands.
Make family, friends and visitors aware that you recycle.

AT SCHOOL:

Enrol in a paper recycling programme and raise funds for your school.
Actively encourage parents to drop off their recycling during their school runs.
Place clearly marked, brightly coloured recycling receptacles in classrooms and on the school grounds.
Contact RecyclePaperZA for a presentation to share the value of recycling with teachers and learners.

AT WORK:

Place paper-only bins for easy separation from other recyclables and wet waste, especially in areas where paper disposal is likely to take place – at desks, photocopiers and printers and in communal kitchens.
Mark recycling receptacles clearly or perhaps use a colour-coding system.
Find out what your company wants to do with recyclables – have them collected or dropped off?
Support a local small business or informal collector by arranging for them to collect the office recyclable paper, boxes and other paper packaging.
Make staff and visitors aware of the office-recycling programme. It may take regular education and encouragement, and some fun incentives.
Once you get the hang of paper recycling, start separating other recyclables, like plastic, cans and glass, aerosols and electronic waste. You could also try composting organic kitchen waste to go even greener.

Lastly, pay it forward and get friends and family to recycle too.

PAPER RECYCLING IN SOUTH AFRICA. THE NUMBERS.

In 2014, 64% of South Africa’s recoverable paper was collected for recycling. This equated to 1.1 million tonnes, enough to fill 1,276 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Only 5% of households conscientiously recycle their paper.
Recycling just a tonne of paper removes the need for three cubic metres of landfill space.

USEFUL WEBSITES

www.recyclepaper.co.za

www.mywaste.co.za

www.recycling.co.za

The post Paper recycling. Simplified. first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Discover the treasure in your trash

Admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 11:55:19 +0000

Between September 14 and 19, we celebrate Clean-up South Africa and Recycle Week to encourage citizens countrywide to recycle as a means of preventing ‘treasured trash’ from taking up precious space in landfills and extending its usable life as a new product.

Organisations like the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA) are working towards a ‘recycling-minded’ society by teaching ordinary people how they can make an extraordinary difference – with everyday items.

“Separating paper and cardboard products from home, school and office waste and keeping it aside for conversion into other products has many benefits, both for the environment and the people who make a living by collecting recyclables and selling them on to buy-back centres and paper manufacturers,” says RecyclePaperZA operations director Ursula Henneberry.

RENEWABLE AND RECYCLABLE

The paper products we come into daily contact with – ranging from office paper and newspapers, medicine boxes and magazines, juice and milk cartons to cardboard cores from toilet rolls – can all be recycled.

They are also completely renewable because, at some point, their fibre would have come from sustainably and responsibly farmed trees that are planted, grown, harvested and replanted in cycles.

Recycling also keeps the carbon originally stored in the wood fibre of trees locked in paper products and out of the atmosphere for longer.

Unfortunately large quantities of paper still end up in landfills, which are rapidly running out of space, and add to greenhouse gas emissions when paper decomposes with other waste.

“During 2014, 64% of recoverable paper was recycled, 2% more than in 2013 and 5% more than in 2012,” says Henneberry. “For every tonne of paper recycled, up to three cubic metres of landfill space is saved – land that could be better used for housing, agriculture and infrastructure. During 2014, South Africans recycled 1.1 million tonnes, enough to fill 1,276 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”

But we need to do more. It is estimated that only 5% of households recycle paper.

RecyclePaperZA advises that householders keep recyclables aside for an informal collector who walks your neighbourhood every week. “This increases the quality of the recyclables, allowing the collector to earn a little more.”

TRASH IS TREASURE

“In a country with high unemployment rates and accompanying poverty, paper recycling is becoming a source of revenue for a growing number of people. An estimated 35,000 people put food on their tables by walking the streets to collect ‘waste’ in return for cash or work for larger companies to recover, sort and weigh recyclables for conversion into usable and commercially viable products.

The pulp and paper manufacturing industry is a key sector in the South African economy. Importantly, it employs a workforce of more than 150,000 people across the value chain – from forestry, to pulp and paper manufacturing to informal collectors. These people in turn collectively feed, clothe and school around 900,000 dependants.

“Companies that produce paper products run major mills specifically designed to turn today’s phonebooks, magazines, notepads, company minutes, milk cartons and cereal boxes into tomorrow’s egg containers, corrugated boxes and board, newspapers and tissue products,” states Henneberry.

“Some 65% of recovered paper is used as fibre, without which these mills would stand idle, unable to manufacture the pulp used to produce materials for products manufactured in South Africa and exported around the world.”

You can get involved by separating all kinds of refuse, starting with paper and moving on to plastics, glass and cans.

Paper products you can recycle:

all office paper
coloured paper
newspaper, magazines (even glossy ones)
catalogues, phonebooks
direct marketing leaflets
cardboard packaging of all kinds, shapes and sizes – boxes used for moving; electronics, shoes, gifts and cereal
paper towel and toilet paper cores
food packaging (unwaxed only please)
shredded paper (in plastic bag to minimize blow-away)
milk, juice and liquid cartons (should be empty)
books: all soft cover, hard or plastic covers should be ripped off
pizza boxes (food and wax paper removed)
brown paper bags

Remember, paper should be separated from wet waste so it does not get contaminated.

Paper products you shouldn’t recycle

Tissue paper and paper towel
Wax paper
Used cement and dog food bags
Disposable nappies
Plastic lined papers
Foil lined papers

RECYCLING PROGRAMMES

Visit mywaste.co.za for programmes in your area.
- Enrol in a free kerbside collection programme.
- Find a drop-off centre near your home or office, usually at local shopping centres.
Check with local community centres, places of worship or schools if they have a paper recycling programme from which they benefit financially.
Contract the services of a small recycling business.

Clean-up SA and Recycle Week takes place between September 14 and 18, and National Recycling Day is celebrated on Friday, September 18. International Coastal Clean-up Day takes place on Saturday, 19 September.

The post Discover the treasure in your trash first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

A Troubling Sign for Tablet Magazines?

Admin — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 19:25:16 +0000

A study that purportedly shows tablet users’ “preference for digital magazines over print magazines” actually suggests that people really don’t like tablet magazines.

“23% of tablet users prefer digital magazines on tablets over print,” says a blog post from Mequoda about its new study “How American Adults Consume Magazines on Tablets.” The blog post and trade-media coverage interpret the data as meaning that tablet magazines are about to enter a boom period.

But here’s the real news: Three-fourths of U.S. tablet users do not prefer digital magazines to print magazines. Read that sentence again: It doesn’t say three-fourths of U.S. Luddites or of adults or of magazine readers; it says three-fourths of tablet users.

Isn’t that a bit like people with Blu-Ray players preferring to watch VHS tapes?

In the same study, 51% of tablet users prefer streaming video to broadcast and 39% prefer e-books to printed books.

Yes, tablet use is growing. Mequoda found that a majority of U.S. internet users have access to a tablet. And yes people are learning to do more and more with them. Tablets are displacing laptops for many people.

But tablet owners apparently haven’t fallen in love with reading magazines on their tablets.That may be why Newsweek has reportedly gone from 1.5 million subscribers to 470,000 less than six months after dropping print to go digital-only.

Despite all the hype about iPads and Kindles, U.S. magazine publishers are making far more money on the web and generally wondering when their tablet investments will pay off.

In fact, though no one seems to talk about it, the real game-changing technology for subscription magazines has been browser-based editions — that is, digital replicas that can be read on any computer. Many a B2B publication has shifted 50% or more of its subscription base to these simple page-flip editions, but few print-and-digital publications get even 10% of their circulation from tablet editions.

Source

The post A Troubling Sign for Tablet Magazines? first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Why we should be recycling our paper

Admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 07:26:35 +0000

Paper recycling rates in South Africa increased to nearly 60% in 2011. This equates to the annual recovery of over a million tonnes of paper. Despite increased awareness, large amounts of recoverable paper and board packaging are still unnecessarily dumped in landfill sites.

“Sadly only 5% of homes actively recycle their paper and board,” says Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA) operations director Ursula Henneberry.

National Recycling Day on Friday, 14 September, is the perfect opportunity for South Africans to take a more active role in recycling, in the home and at the workplace.

The simplest way to green our future

Paper, one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable products, is made from farmed trees, just as your morning cereal was made from farmed wheat or corn. Plantation trees help to absorb carbon dioxide from and release life-giving oxygen into the atmosphere.

Trees, and thus paper and wood products, store this carbon as solid matter. By recycling paper, we can ensure that this carbon is kept out of the atmosphere for longer. Paper recycling is one of the simplest ways that we can green our future.

“If we do not recycle, paper will rot among other rubbish and emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” says Henneberry.

A tonne of recycled paper can save up to three cubic metres of landfill space and subsequently reduce transport costs for local municipalities.

By recycling paper, milk and juice cartons, glass, aluminium and plastic, we contribute to less pollution and litter, and create a healthier, greener and cleaner society.

Top tips for aspiring recyclers

Do your research and find out which companies collect paper in your area. Visit www.mywaste.co.za for these details.
Do not mix your paper with other recyclables.
Do not let your paper get wet or soiled by other rubbish. Keep it under cover or in a closed plastic container.
Get to know what is recyclable and what is not. The following paper types cannot be recycled:

– Foil gift wrapping and foiled lined boxes
– Wax coated or laminated boxes such as frozen food boxes
– Empty cement and dog food bags
– Disposable nappies
– Carbon paper
– Sticky notes

Remember that juice, milk and custard cartons ARE recyclable. Simply rinse, flatten and place with your paper recycling.
Newspapers are best recycled within three months.
If you don’t have a formal recycling collection service or drop-off depot in your neighbourhood, consider putting your recyclables in clear plastic bags so that the people who sort through the piles of refuse on collection day are afforded some dignity by not having to trawl through your week’s household waste.

Give paper a new lease on life

Paper can be recycled up to seven times. Some virgin or new wood fibre is required to make recycled paper possible in the first place and is always needed to keep the global fibre cycle going. But have you ever wondered where recyclable paper goes or what it becomes?

Corrugated boxes and magazines = new corrugated boxes
Newspapers, magazines = newspapers
Office paper, newspapers, printer offcuts = tissue products, kitchen and industrial paper towelling
Office paper, corrugated boxes, printer offcuts, cardboard trims = cereal boxes, soap cartons
Newspaper, cardboard trims = moulded paper products such as egg boxes.
Milk and juice cartons = board paper.

Next time you open your grocery cupboard or medicine cabinet, think about the role that paper plays in your life in its various and versatile forms.

The post Why we should be recycling our paper first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

What really keeps women’s magazines alive

Admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:32:24 +0000

SA case study reveals that traditional paper magazines are beating their internet counterparts hands down

By Mlenga Jere and Susan Davis

Publishers are up in arms, print journalists are panicking and at least once every few months, one reads of another magazine shutting down because it just isn’t bringing in enough profits. The global recession, combined with a spike in online media consumption, has been blamed for the apparently terminal condition of magazines. And in a last desperate scramble to survive, many printed publications are opting for internet-only subscriptions or offering exclusive content via social networking sites.

But can print magazines be written off that easily? John Marr wrote in his 1999 article “Zines are Dead” that “The quirky spirit of zines hasn’t died. It’s just migrated to the web. If I were starting out today, no way would I mess with hard copy – I’d go straight to the net. It’s cheaper, easier, and faster…everyone knows this.” But, 13 years down the line, it seems Marr spoke too soon – and other scholars are also warning that print media won’t go down without a fight. Lisa McLean writes in the Guardian, for instance, that print media have been warned of their impending doom more times than they can count, from the turn of the 20th century – which brought the first motion pictures – to the advent of radio and network television and, most recently, the internet. And yet they survive. In fact, new research from the UCT Graduate School of Business which looked at consumption patterns in South Africa has revealed that, if anything, it seems more likely that online magazines are under threat. Despite the rapid growth of web consumers in South Africa (and the number is set to double within five years), even the most popular print magazines are battling to attract readers to their online counterparts. One of the most popular women’s magazines – Cosmopolitan – attracts 6 000 website visitors per month, but sales of printed copies are almost double that (bearing in mind that circulation figures are typically much higher than sales figures). So, in a nutshell, the real challenge facing South African magazines has not been migrating to the web in time, but rather getting consumers to migrate alongside. The logical question, then, is what print magazines are offering their readers that websites do not. But this also has to be weighed against what is most important to readers. Undoubtedly the web does have some advantages in terms of cost, the freshness of news, etc. But if this is not what readers care about most in a magazine, then it does not add up to a competitive advantage – so it’s essential to understand the readers’ motivations and what they are looking for. Traditionally, print magazines have followed a reasonably simple formula for making a profit: using journalistic content to segment and target consumers and, in turn, attracting advertising revenue. And it has worked for almost a century. Unfortunately for local magazines, however, South Africa doesn’t have a culture of loyal magazine subscription, and most sales can be put down to “impulse buys” at the till – which means magazines cannot rely on regular sales, but must compete afresh for consumers’ attention with each new edition. Many magazines have responded to this potential pitfall by positioning their brands as a specific personality which readers will want to engage in many areas of their lives on a regular basis – a perceived friendship, if you will. Relationships are not the be-all and end-all But forming relationships with readers is not the be-all and end-all. A relationship will still be terminated summarily if the consumer’s needs are not being met, and for this reason, the abovementioned research relied mostly on the uses and gratifications theory. For the non-communication theorists out there, this is essentially the idea that audiences are not passive receivers of messages, but active participants who decide what to consume and absorb based on what they get out of it – which in turn is informed by their social and psychological makeup and, of course, their individual needs. Put simply, it’s about looking at the use they have for the media they consume, and the gratification they get out of it – or, more crudely, what’s in it for them.

The survey questions

From this starting point, the study set out to answer three questions, namely:

• What are the motives of South African women for using the internet? • What are the motives of these same women for reading women’s magazines? • In what areas would the internet provide superior gratification to magazines and vice versa?

Questionnaires consisting of 30 statements measuring the motivations for magazine and internet use were given to participants who could agree or disagree with them on a sliding scale. Simple enough. The results, however, were surprising. The results The overwhelming majority of women said they used the internet primarily for chatting (perhaps less surprising) or banking (more surprising). Less than 70% used the internet for work and, in an uncomfortable reinforcement of stereotypes, far more used the internet for cooking and recipes than news or other information. The primary factors influencing satisfaction with their surfing time were, in order of importance: interpersonal utility (the internet as a means to connect with others and maintain relationships); information seeking (the actual process of finding information); surveillance (keeping up to date with current events); self-development (creativity, development and self-growth); exploration (their enjoyment of just surfing the web); diversion (relaxation and entertainment); and, lastly, career opportunities. Information-seeking tops the list of importance These results differed significantly when looking at the factors motivating women to read print magazines. In order of importance, these were: information seeking; status (which includes improving one’s social position, shopping and even finding romance); diversion; career opportunities; self-development (an inspiration to do something new or change their lives); and exploration (where it also came out that the respondents enjoyed discovering new print magazines). Interestingly, careers were a salient factor in print consumption, despite the relatively low amount of career content in most women’s magazines. However, this might have something to do with the level of depth women expect from articles: many respondents agreed strongly with statements describing the rich content of print magazines – i.e. in-depth, interesting stories – and perhaps expect even one article to pack a punch. The reality is that magazines still have a culture of their own. They are not only used to keep up with trends and lifestyle issues, but even function as important shopping tools (which one might at first have expected to come up more strongly in web magazines). Furthermore, magazines are seen as credible sources of information and, perhaps even more importantly, the strong responses on magazine reading as an entertaining diversion underlines what an important source of leisure our print magazines remain. With the large amount of women’s magazine content dedicated to transformation, self-improvement, trends and escape, it is perhaps not surprising that self-development and status featured high on the list as well. And perhaps unexpectedly, despite their use of the internet for social purposes, women nonetheless seem to associate a strong sense of community with their favourite print magazines. Ultimately, the study revealed that internet use provided superior gratification in fewer areas than magazines did. The internet lost by a wide margin, outperforming magazines in six areas, versus the triumph of print in 20. The internet only trumped print in terms of process, i.e. quick, easy access to information or affordable and free content. But considering that women are not motivated most strongly by these factors, it is perhaps unsurprising that the old adage still holds true – content is king. Print reigns supreme Print magazines are still the queens of the newsstands, reigning as the primary mechanisms for diversion and keeping up to date with the world’s happenings. So for publishers, it might be worth looking at what the web can learn from print, rather than vice versa – for instance, providing richer content in terms of life advice, expert answers and instructional content. With women’s reading habits being as firmly entrenched as they are, it may also be more logical for magazine publishers to invest in strategies that would protect their print business in the long term, and keep it lucrative. And if publishers really want to make a go of the internet as a viable medium, they need to remember which needs the internet meets best – and work with that. Mlenga Jere (PhD, University of Cape Town) is a senior lecturer in marketing at the UCT Graduate School of Business. Susan Davis (MBA, University of Cape Town) is a publishing manager at Media24. Source: UCT GSB Newsline (http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/newsletter/v3/story.asp?intArticleID=1895)

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