Partnership aims to boost magazine and catalog recycling

Sussex, WI— Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle joined Quad/Graphics chairman and CEO Tom Quadracci at the company’s Sussex plant to launch a campaign with national business and non-profit partners aimed at increasing recycling of magazines and catalogs in metropolitan Milwaukee, with a focus on the City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County. This innovative partnership was created by national partners that include the National Recycling Coalition, Time Inc., International Paper and recyclers FCR and Recycle America Alliance (RAA). Locally, the partnership will include Quad/Graphics as well as the City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County.

Building on the area’s strong record of recycling and high magazine readership, the ReMix — Recycling Magazines is Excellent — campaign, is designed to inform residents that they can easily include magazines and catalogs with their other paper recycling. By doing so, they will divert magazines and catalogs from landfills and provide significant economic benefits to the local community.

Governor Doyle encouraged residents who are not already including magazines and catalogs in their paper recycling to begin by simply putting them with their other paper to be recycled.

International Paper and Time Inc. joined with the National Recycling Coalition to research major U.S. cities’ recycling rates and infrastructures to determine the ideal location for the launch of the ReMix program. The pilot program was launched in Boston and in Prince George’s County, Md., in 2004. The success of the pilot in increasing the recovery of magazines and catalogs in curbside recycling programs led the partners to expand the program to the Milwaukee metropolitan area, where an effective recycling program has been in place for many years.

“According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about 2 million tons of magazines are produced each year in the U.S., but only about 32 percent are recycled,” said National Recycling Coalition executive director Kate Krebs. “Our national research shows that Americans support recycling, but they are often uncertain about what can be recycled. That’s why the National Recycling Coalition has brought government agencies, leading companies and advocacy organizations together in several communities around the nation to educate the public about just how easy it is to recycle magazines and catalogs.”

The partners will measure the recovery of magazines and catalogs in the City of Milwaukee and in Waukesha County. Currently, paper represents about 63 percent of the residential tonnage that is recycled by the City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County. However, with about 30 percent of magazines and catalogs recycled, the ReMix partners see a clear opportunity to create an exemplary program that other cities will want to emulate.