What happens to my newspaper?

By any measure, newspaper recycling has been one of the  recycling movement's most successful endeavors.  What's more, the newspaper and newsprint industries, as well as most communities, continue to make recycling a priority. In fact, today over 73 percent of all old newspapers in the United States are recovered and recycled. That represents more than 9 million tons of old newspapers out of a total supply of more than 13 million tons.

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How Recycled Newspaper Is Used

By far the most common use of recycled newspaper fiber is the creation of new newspaper. In fact, thirty percent of the recycled fiber from newsprint is used to create paper for newspapers. However, recycled newspaper is also used to create cereal boxes, egg cartons, pencil barrels, grocery bags, cellulose insulation materials, tissue paper and many more diverse products.

Newsprint also has an export market, with many old newspapers going to Canada, again primarily for use in the production of new newsprint.

Source: Newspaper Association of America

Newspaper Recycling Facts and Figures

• Paper fiber from newspaper can be recycled up to four times. With each trip through the pulping process, the fibers gradually break down, so some amount of "virgin fiber" is always required in creating new paper.
• 70,000 standard size newspaper pages are made from one metric ton of recycled newsprint.
• One ton of old newspapers is worth approximately the same as 150 copies of a large Sunday paper.

Helpful Resources on Newspaper Recycling

Newspaper Association of America