Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 19, 1993                   TAG: 9312170057
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID E. KALISH ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Medium

BIG PAPER MAKER ROLLS OUT OFFICE PAPER THAT'S ALL TRASH

Countering doubts that high-quality products can't be made mostly from garbage, International Paper Co. says it has started producing office paper from 50 percent used newspapers and magazines. The other half is made from unsold newspapers.

The product, intended for copy machines, stationery, commercial forms and other uses, is billed as the first office-quality paper from a major U.S. manufacturer containing such a high percentage of waste. It is also

industry's biggest response to date to nascent demand from federal government agencies and companies seeking to boost purchases of paper made from trash, part of a broader effort to reduce the nation's waste output.

International Paper, the world's largest forest and paper products company, owns 6 million acres of forests and still makes most of its products from virgin material.

But the Purchase, N.Y.-based company estimates the new paper produced at its Lock Haven, Pa., mill will divert up to 100,000 tons of newspapers and magazines a year from the waste stream, collected mostly from communities and trash brokers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

It planned to announce the new product in Manhattan on Thursday and make it available in retail stores nationally over the next few months.

In October, President Clinton signed an order that the federal government buy paper for printing and writing that's composed of at least 20 percent recycled material, a level exceeded by International Paper's product.

Last summer Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's Corp. and other major business users of paper-based products and packaging joined together to boost their use of recycled material in everything from magazines to toothbrush boxes.

By using more trash to make paper, policy makers hope to reduce the burden on local landfills, which receive 11 million tons of paper a year, 40 percent of all solid waste.

"Frankly a lot of the (waste) paper we are collecting has been used not in printing and writing paper but in tissue and lower grade products. This will only accelerate the trend of high-grading that paper," said Richard Denison, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, a Washington-based environmental group.

Denison said that International Paper's product is the highest-quality paper made by a U.S. manufacturer containing such high levels of waste paper.

Until now, most recycled paper for office purposes contained only up to 10 percent waste. Paper containing more than that tended to be marred by specks and flecks from old ink, which made it unsuitable for many business purposes.

In International Paper's product, sold under its Hammermill Unity DP and Springhill Incentive 100 brands, the specks are far less noticeable. International Paper credits a deinking-technology it licensed from a German company, Steinbels Temming Papier GmbH & Co.

But business and consumers may need time to get used to the paper's off-white color. Unlike most bright white office paper, the new product is produced without environmentally harmful chlorine bleaching.

Clinton's order revises brightness specifications for paper so that agencies can purchase stationery produced with chlorine. It does not, however, require federal purchases of chlorine-free paper.

"If International Paper markets it right and really explains the environmental advantage it can start to turn the tide in terms of how we think about paper," Denison said.