Eureka! Recycled News

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OAKLAND, Calif.

Some consumers are starting to demand recycled paper with higher brightness, says an executive of the West Coast's leading manufacturer of recycled office papers.

"Today customers expect that technology will give them a product that is environmentally correct and has a high-quality appearance," said John F. Stephenson, director of marketing for the Communication Papers Business at Fort James Corp.

As a result of this, he noted, Eureka! this year introduced Eureka! Opaque Ultra, believed to be the first opaque printing paper with a brightness level of 92 that also contains 30 percent recycled post-consumer content. Sales of the paper are expected to be small in the first year, but to grow rapidly as more people become aware that a premium recycled sheet is available, Stephenson said.

Consumers also are becoming savvy about reviewing the specifications behind a recycled label, he added.

"Just as people now realize that the numbers of calories may vary considerably between two reduced fat products, consumers are realizing that all recycled products are not the same. The key is both the percentage of recycled content and the percentage that is post-consumer waste."

Stephenson noted that the federal government has taken a leading role in educating the public.

Federal Executive Order 12873 asks executive branch departments to buy paper with recycled content, with guidelines calling for 20 percent post-consumer content now and rising to 30 percent next year. Eureka! already meets the 1999 standard, and other manufacturers are expected to follow suit.

Also prominent in the educational movement has been the National Office Paper Recycling Project, which encourages corporations to recycle paper and to buy recycled products.

With sales of approximately $500 million per year, the Fort James Communication Papers Business is the largest producer of virgin and recycled uncoated communication papers in the Western United States. These products are sold under the Eureka!, Eclipse and Columbia brand names. The firm, with more than 100 years of papermaking experience, was established in 1997 with the merger of James River Corporation and Fort Howard Corporation.

Fort James is a leading international consumer products company, serving consumers both at home and away-from-home with bathroom and facial tissue, paper towels, napkins, and cups and plates.

The company's popular brands include Quilted Northern, Brawny, Dixie, Vanity Fair, Mardi Gras, Green Forest, Soft 'N Gentle and So-Dri in North America and Lotus, Tenderly, Colhogar and Kittensoft in Europe. Fort James also produces folding cartons for packaging food and pharmaceuticals. The company has approximately 30,000 employees and more than 65 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and 12 European countries.

The supply of recycled office paper today is more than adequate, and the infrastructure is in place for continued growth, an executive of one of the world's largest paper companies told the third Recycled Copier Paper Summit, held at the White House Conference Center today.

John F. Stephenson, director of marketing for the Communication Papers Business at Fort James Corp., made his remarks at the conference sponsored by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive. The conference was held in anticipation of the federal executive order going into effect on Jan. 1, 1999, which calls for government executive agencies to specify at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled content for office paper purchases. Current guidelines call for 20 percent post-consumer recycled content.

Recycled office paper products now make up about 10 percent of office paper sales, Stephenson said. "However, the infrastructure is in place for growth, with five of the 10 largest manufacturers in North America having built new pulp mills that can handle recycled paper in the past five years.

"The issue today is not whether there is an adequate supply of high-quality recycled paper, but whether consumer demand will keep pace with the growth in supply," he said.

The use of recycled office paper has increased from about 8.5 percent of the total market in 1995 to 9.8 percent in 1996, Stephenson said.

"The federal government is leading the way to higher purchases of recycled-content paper, and we expect the private sector to follow," he added. "Companies that want to be sensitive to the environment no longer need to worry about an adequate supply and the quality of recycled paper. The supply and quality are available, and many good quality papers are available with as much as 50 to 100 percent post-consumer recycled content. We already meet the 30 percent guidelines, and we expect other companies soon will follow our lead."

Also speaking on the panel were Frank Pugliese of the General Services Administration Federal Supply Service, Jim Adala of the Environmental Protection Agency and Robert Monster, deputy public printer. Other speakers were Fran McPoland, federal environmental executive; Darby Hoover, chairperson of the Recycled Paper Coalition; and Mary Cesar of Jakko Poyry Consulting.

Recycled paper for everyday use costs from 5 to 10 percent more than comparable paper made from virgin fibers, Stephenson said, but he believes a key reason companies do not specify recycled content is "an educational gap.

"Companies, like individuals, tend to think that if they recycle waste products, they have done their part. They forget about the necessity of specifying recycled content for a wide range of office papers - from copier paper to envelopes to brochures. Recycling is an important step, but unless we also buy recycled-content products, we have only done half our job," he added.

Fort James alone has invested in excess of $70 million in its Halsey, Ore. recycling plant, which is a state-of-the-art office paper deinking facility approximately 100 miles south of Portland. The corporation has other recycling plants in Green Bay, Wis; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Muskogee, Okla.; and Rincon, Ga.

"The Halsey process allows us to deink office waste, the most difficult type of waste paper because of the heavy use of copiers and laser printers which plasticize toner particles onto the fiber in the paper," Stephenson explained.

With sales of approximately $500 million per year, Fort James' Communication Papers Business is the largest producer of virgin and recycled uncoated business, printing and converting papers in the Western United States. These products are sold under Eureka!, Eclipse and Columbia brand names. Headquarters are in Oakland, Calif.

Fort James, with more than 100 years of papermaking experience, was established in 1997 with the merger of James River Corporation and Fort Howard Corporation.

It is a leading international consumer products company, serving consumers both at home and away-from-home with bathroom and facial tissue, paper towels, napkins, and cups and plates. The company's popular brands include Quilted Northern, Brawny, Dixie, Vanity Fair, Mardi Gras, Green Forest, Soft 'N Gentle and So-Dri in North America and Lotus, Tenderly, Colhogar and Kittensoft in Europe. Fort James also produces folding cartons for packaging food and pharmaceuticals and communications papers such as printing, publishing and office copy paper. The company has approximately 30,000 employees and more than 65 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and 12 European countries.

Eureka! office and business papers are produced by the Communication Papers Business of Fort James Corporation, one of the largest paper companies in the world.

The Communication Papers Business offers virgin and recycled-content printing and publishing papers, office/reprographic papers, and converting papers for a range of business applications, including forms bond and envelopes.

With sales of approximately $500 million a year, it is the largest producer of virgin and recycled uncoated business, printing and converting papers in the Western United States. These products are sold under Eureka!, Eclipse and Columbia brand names.

Eureka! recycled papers are produced at mills located in Camas, Wash., and Wauna, Ore., both of which are in the Portland area. Business headquarters for the division is in Oakland, Calif.

An additional facility at Halsey, Ore., was constructed in 1992 at a cost of $70 million to deink today's office papers, many of which have toner particles plasticized onto paper by laser printers and photocopiers. These heat-fused particles cannot be removed by the "washing" methods traditionally used to recycle office papers and required the development of new technology.

The Halsey plant uses 500 to 550 tons of recovered office paper every day to produce approximately 360 tons of pulp from which new paper is made. The wastepaper is collected primarily from the Western United States and Canada and delivered to Halsey.

Fort James Corporation, with more than 100 years of papermaking experience, was established in 1997 with the merger of James River Corporation and Fort Howard Corporation.

Fort James is a leading international consumer products company, serving consumers both at home and away-from-home with bathroom and facial tissue, paper towels, napkins, and cups and plates. The company's popular brands include Quilted Northern, Brawny, Dixie, Vanity Fair, Mardi Gras, Green Forest, Soft 'N Gentle and So-Dri in North America and Lotus, Tenderly, Colhogar and Kittensoft in Europe. Fort James also produces folding cartons for packaging food and pharmaceuticals and communications papers such as printing, publishing and office copy paper. The company has approximately 30,000 employees and more than 65 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and 12 European countries.

The growth in demand for recycled business paper is lagging behind the increase in supply, an official at Fort James Corporation, one of the largest paper companies in the world, said today.

"The paper industry responded to the anticipated consumer demand for recycled-content office papers, building new mills and developing a wide range of papers that meet the same quality standards as papers made with virgin materials," said John F. Stephenson, director of marketing for the Communication Papers Business at Fort James Corp. "But the actual demand is not keeping up with supply."

Several factors have contributed to the situation, he suggested.

A significant factor is cost. Recycled-content paper has traditionally been priced at least 5 percent higher than virgin paper because of the cost of collecting, deinking and processing waste paper.

Companies historically have been willing to pay a slight premium for recycled content, he said, but when paper costs peaked in 1995, many companies stopped increasing their purchases of recycled products. Although prices have come down now, not all companies have gone back to increasing their orders for recycled content.

"In addition to price resistance, we face an educational gap on the issues," Stephenson said. "Companies, like individuals, tend to think that if they recycle waste products, they have done their part. They forget about the necessity of specifying recycled content for a wide range of office papers " from copier paper to envelopes to brochures. Recycling is an important step, but unless we also buy recycled-content products, we have only done half our job."

The situation should improve somewhat in 1999, when federal agencies will be required to specify at least 30 percent recycled content " up from the current 20 percent " in all of their paper products. Many states and private corporations follow the federal lead, said Stephenson, noting that Eureka! already has increased its postconsumer fiber content to 30 percent, more than a year before the federal deadline.

An important environmental benefit of recycled paper today is reduction of materials dumped in landfills, Stephenson noted. In fact, California has mandated that cities reduce their waste by 50 percent by the year 2001 or face severe penalties.

Between 1992 and the year 2000 more than $10 billion will have been spent in developing processes to produce recycled-content paper comparable to virgin fiber paper, according to the American Forest and Paper Association in Washington, D.C. Overall, more than 10 new deinking mills were built from 1994 to 1996, but two have already closed from lack of demand and the others are operating at only 60 percent of total capacity, according to statistics compiled by the environmental organization Conservatree.

Fort James alone invested in excess of $70 million in the Halsey, Ore. recycling plant, which is a state-of-the-art office paper deinking plant approximately 100 miles south of Portland. The corporation has other recycling plants in Green Bay, Wis; Kalamazoo, Mich; Muskogee, Okla. and Rincon, Ga.

"The Halsey process allows us to deink office waste, the most difficult type of waste paper because of the heavy use of copiers and laser printers which plasticize toner particles onto the fiber in the paper," Stephenson said.

There are some companies with strong commitments to purchasing recycled-content products, noted Stephenson. For example, the National Office Paper Recycling Project last year gave its "Grand Challenge Award" to BankAmerica, which used recycled-content paper for 81 percent of its annual paper purchases of 17,273 tons in the western United States. Fifteen other companies were also honored.

With sales of approximately $500 million per year, the Communication Papers Business is the largest producer of virgin and recycled uncoated business, printing and converting papers in the Western United States. These products are sold under Eureka!, Eclipse and Columbia brand names.

Eureka! recycled office papers are produced by Fort James Corporation. The firm, with more than 100 years of papermaking experience, was established in 1997 with the merger of James River Corporation and Fort Howard Corporation.

Fort James is a leading international consumer products company, serving consumers both at home and away-from-home with bathroom and facial tissue, paper towels, napkins, and cups and plates. The company"s popular brands include,

Quilted Northern, Brawny, Dixie, Vanity Fair, Mardi Gras, Green Forest, Soft 'N Gentle and So-Dri in North America and Lotus, Tenderly, Colhogar and Kittensoft in Europe. Fort James also produces folding cartons for packaging food and pharmaceuticals and communications papers such as printing, publishing and office copy paper. The company has approximately 30,000 employees and more than 65 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and 12 European countries.

Fort James to Increase Recycled Content in Office Papers
A Year Ahead of Federal Government Guidelines

Fort James Corporation announced today that it will increase the recycled content of all Eureka! office papers to a minimum 30 percent - more than a full year before the federal government guideline to do so goes into effect.

There will be no price increase to distributors, meaning that customers will be able to increase the recycled content of their office papers without spending more money, said John F. Stephenson, director of marketing for the Communication Papers Business at Fort James Corp.

Federal agencies now are required to specify at least 20 percent recycled post-consumer content in all of their paper purchases. Federal Executive Order 12873 raises this to 30 percent by Jan. 1, 1999.

The federal order came in recognition of the fact that technology now widely exists to collect and recycle office papers, but the market is lagging because too few companies specify recycled-content in their purchases. Many specify only the minimum recycled content.

Typically, many state agencies and private corporations follow the federal government's lead in specifying recycled-content papers, said Stephenson.

"We are proud that we have developed a program to do this ahead of schedule " and that we are able to increase the recycled content of our office papers without raising prices to our distributors," he added. Eureka! offers more than 50 different types of office, printing and business papers.

With sales of approximately $500 million per year, the Communication Papers Business is the largest producer of virgin and recycled uncoated business, printing and converting papers in the Western United States. These products are sold under Eureka!, Eclipse and Columbia brand names.

Eureka! recycled office papers are produced by Fort James Corporation. The firm, with more than 100 years of papermaking experience, was established in 1997 with the merger of James River Corporation and Fort Howard Corporation.

Fort James is a leading international consumer products company, serving consumers both at home and away-from-home with bathroom and facial tissue, paper towels, napkins, and cups and plates. The company's popular brands include Quilted Northern, Brawny, Dixie, Vanity Fair, Mardi Gras, Green Forest, Soft 'N Gentle and So-Dri in North America and Lotus, Tenderly, Colhogar and Kittensoft in Europe. Fort James also produces folding cartons for packaging food and pharmaceuticals and communications papers such as printing, publishing and office copy paper. The company has approximately 30,000 employees and more than 65 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and 12 European countries.