Energy Optimal Use of Waste Paper. Final Report

摘要

In 1974, Americans consumed 65.5 million tons of paper. Of this, 12.1 million tons were recycled and 53.4 million tons were lost in use or became municipal solid waste. The paper which became solid waste could have been burned as a fuel or used as a raw material to make more paper. The report discusses what mix of burning and recycling of waste paper would minimize the total US energy used to make and dispose of the 1974 production of paper. Five cases are analyzed to determine the effects of various assumptions about how the energy in wood and paper will be treated. In one case, both wood and paper are assumed to have an energy value. In another, neither wood nor paper is assumed to have an energy value. In the other three cases, paper, but not wood, is assumed to have an energy value which is utilized differently in each case. It is found in each case that it is worthwhile in terms of energy conservation to recycle as much high-grade de-inking waste paper as can be collected. How much of the other grades of waste paper would be recycled depends on which of the various energy-accounting schemes is used. It is further found that the greatest energy savings are accomplished when both wood and waste paper are acknowledged to have an energy value. The greatest energy savings attainable in any case would be 30% of the energy actually used by the system in 1974. (ERA citation 04:048754)