The Paper Chase

Recycling programs gain in popularity

When the people of Milton Keynes, England, leave for not only the morning paper and a briefcase, but also a bag filled with empty beverage cartons and other disposable paper, glass and plastic items.

The disposables never make it to the office. Instead, they're dumped into one of the many large containers located in several of the town's car parks. Like municipalities and companies all over the world, the town of Milton Keynes is attempting to recycle in an economical and socially viable way.

with landfill space getting scarcer all the time, the effort to recycle paper has become imperative for people throughout the industrialized world. Paper is a large part of the problem: about 30% of total domestic waste in Europe is paper and board products; in the United States, the total is some 40%.

Governments are taking note. Several U.S. states, for instance, already have laws imposing a minimum content of recycled fiber in newsprint. A law proposed in Germany would require that all paper packaging be recycled instead of discarded by 1995, and the European Commission is considering similar legislation.

the private sector is responding as well. Japan's Fujitsu Corp. is slowly switching from the manufacture of coated paper fax machines to