Paper

Different forms of paper -- including junk mail, newspaper, cardboard and paper packaging – make up half of a Sitka family's total waste. Paper is becoming increasingly valuable as an international commodity and can be collected and re-used.

At the Marine Services Center (city cold storage) on Katlian Street. The Center is located near the Petro marine and auto fuel stations. It is open seven days a week.

Cardboard (and glass) can also be taken to the Solid Waste Transfer Station on Jarvis Street (near the main Post Office)

Corrugated Cardboard -- should be flattened. Big staples should be removed. No wet, soiled or waxed cardboard, such as milk containers. Corrugated cardboard has a wavy section in the middle of the paperboard. If the wavy section is there, it’s cardboard. If not, consider it mixed paper.

Newsprint -- should be kept separate, dry and free of contamination.

Mixed Paper -- all other paper including all colors of office paper, slick paper magazines and advertisements, and paper food and product packaging. File folders and the tubes from toilet paper and wrapping paper are mixed paper. Confidential papers may be shredded (see below) or important information or numbers crossed out. Small plastic windows in envelopes are okay.

Shredded Paper – has its own clearly marked bin. Shredded paper should only be recycled in bags – it is too hard to handle loose. Workers would rather empty bags than deal with loose shreds. Shredded paper is the only paper we ask be put into bags.

The paper will be collected and baled at the Sawmill Cove Industrial site. It will then be shipped south to a recycler in the Lower 48.

Sitka pays to ship the paper south, but receives money for the paper from the recycler. Prices on recycled paper vary widely - cardboard, for instance, has ranged from $40 to more than $90 per ton in the last year.

There is an increasing international demand for US recycled paper, especially in China, which has depleted much if its domestic wood fiber supply and depends on reprocessed paper.