Paper/Carboard: Recycling vs burning

Just out of interest, in Settle,in North Yorkshire, we have a swimming pool, which collects cardboard to help with it's running costs, we collect about 1-2 tonnes per week which is then carted some 25 miles away in 2 big containers. The pool uses conventional power to provide heat and light. I can't help wondering that we may be better finding a way of using the cardboard to provide power for the pool. The energy bill is about £20k per year and we get about £12-£15k back for the cardboard but just thinking of all those lorry journeys makes me think there must be an easier way. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Tom

Recycling is nice, I suppose, if you’ve absolutely got to use and dispose of something. But the recycling process still uses up a lot of energy — and it’s nearly impossible to say how efficient the process is in any given locale. I recently asked Bry Lynas, OneClimate.net editor and OneWorld’s resident climate/energy scientist/guru, about the value of recycling versus burning paper and cardboard products. He says: In some places, there may be minimum transport and highly-efficient use made of the waste whilst in others, the paper might be shipped to China for recycling or (maybe this is an ‘urban myth’) tipped into landfills anyway! And that’s what makes your question so difficult to answer. And it’s why I tend to use most of my paper and cardboard either in the stove or in the compost. Click here to weigh in on that discussion.

Thanks, Bry! That's exactly the kind of science I was looking for!

But I wonder why people know so little about how the recycling is carried out in their respective locales. Seems like there should be some sort of public disclosure required, and if not, some investigative reporting! Would certainly be a hot story, since recycling is a part of life for nearly everyone in developed nations these days, and almost no one seems to know how it works.

I don't think there's a 'correct' answer to your question which is one I have also asked myself many times. I tend to recycle glossy junk mail/catalogues - that kind of thing - because the paper contains fillers and inks which are probably best dealt with in the recycling process. Most of the rest of the paper (including pesky envelopes with plastic address windows) gets to be used for stove-lighting. So does some cardboard but most of the cardboard ends up mixed in my compost heaps. The cardboard usefully helps balance the carbon:nitrogen ratio and I can say that the resultant compost is excellent. Paper composts just as well. But obviously not everyone makes compost.

I don't see any reason for CO2 emissions from burning paper to be greater than for wood since, weight for weight, its all made of cellulose and lignin anyway. C+O2=CO2

As for recycling, the problem here is we know nothing about the cycle. In some places, there may be minimum transport and highly-efficient use made of the waste whilst in others, the paper might be shipped to China for recycling or (maybe this is an 'urban myth') tipped into landfills anyway! And that's what makes your question so difficult to answer. And it's why I tend to use most of my paper and cardboard either in the stove or in the compost.

start small and then

burn it all.

Reverand Tali Victoria