After decades of preaching recycling, it appears that mixed paper is ending up in Vermont landfills.

Back in May, Casella Waste Systems CEO, John Casella noted that “Recycling, as we know it today, appears to be changing rapidly before our eyes due to geopolitical dynamics with China.” Casella’s projections for recycling revenue were off by an estimated $2m for the first quarter of 2018 and estimates a $6m hit to adjusted EBITDA for 2018. (Article)

Now that mixed paper is down by an alarming 90%, if marketing conditions don’t improve, that mixed paper could end up in the only surviving landfill in Vermont – Coventry, which has it’s own set of problems. (Article)

Already, the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) can now “suspend the application of the landfill disposal ban” on mixed paper, per a last-minute amendment to a clean water bill, until July 2019. (Article)

 

According to Foley Distributing, a distributor of recycled paper products, VP John King stated, “Some of the paper coming back from the All in One recycling, wasn’t coming back as clean as shredded paper.” King then started a partnership with David Van Mullen, General Manager of SecurShred. King said, “It seemed a win-win for businesses to utilize their shredded paper and turn it around to use for paper towels, toilet paper and other paper product uses.”

Van Mullen said “It significantly reduces the carbon footprint because the trucks are already shredding the paper, Foley is already distributing paper, we just needed to close the loop, and so, P3 Closed Loop was born.” Foley Distributing and SecurShred pulled in their approved paper manufacturing partners to make a host of paper products including hygiene products, paper towels, bath tissues, napkins, and facial tissues. Participating businesses can securely shred their documents, have the shredded paper used to manufactured paper products, then the finished products distributed by Foley through P3 Closed Loop program.

Paul Fonteyn, President at Green Mountain College and a business utilizing P3 said, “This program is a great demonstration of how non-profit institutions and for-profit companies can work together to create a greener economy.”

To learn how your company can get involved in the P3 program, visit https://www.p3closedloop.com