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When Old News is Good News...

Newspaper Recycling

Americans recycle nearly 70 percent of the 62 million newspapers we buy each day. Thanks to the more than 70 million Americans who recycle them, fewer and fewer newspapers are winding up in landfills. In fact, more newsprint is recycled in the United States each year than is actually made here. (That's because some of our newsprint for newspapers comes from Canada.)

Old newspapers are an important "raw material" and manufacturers want all they can get to make new newspapers and other paper products. In many communities, you can recycle old newspapers in paper grocery bags or tie them in bundles. Simply put them outside next to your recycling bin, or take them to a recycling drop-off site. Just imagine, the next time you see your old newspaper, it may be a new newspaper, an egg carton, cereal box, lottery ticket, pencil, or comic book!

A ton of newspaper measures about three cubic yards—that's about the size of a refrigerator. By recycling old newspapers, you can save tons of landfill space. That's tons of progress!

Share newspapers and magazines with friends and neighbors, or donate them to schools, hospitals, and nursing homes.

Wrap a gift for a friend with the comic section of the Sunday newspaper or with a paper grocery bag you decorated with crayons.

Go Figure!

Each week, the average household reads 5 pounds of newspaper (that's 260 pounds per year). To find out how many pounds of newspapers your family recycles each year, try this simple investigation:

Collect all the newspapers in your house every day for seven days. Weigh them, then multiply that amount by 52 (the number of weeks in a year).

Congratulations! If you recycle them, you've saved that many pounds of newspapers from winding up in a landfill.