Paper forms a significant amount of our waste at SFU. Each tonne of paper recycled saves 17 trees from being cut down, 7,000 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
Paper in landfill can take 80 years to break down, releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane, while it only takes 7 days to produce a new newspaper from a recycled one. It’s important for us as a community to do our part to reduce our waste footprint when it comes to our paper use.
The mixed paper stream is collected and transported to Urban Impact’s Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in New Westminster. Here, a number of automated and manual sorting processes sort the material into different paper types and grades of quality. These separate materials are then baled and shipped to recycling facilities, where they are recycled into new products.