As a way of spurring paper recycling, Federal and state regulators in the early ‘90s were about to require paper mills to include arbitrary amounts of post-consumer recycled fiber in all paper products purchased by Federal and state agencies. Papermakers feared that government intervention would lead to widespread adoption of these requirements throughout the marketplace, seriously distorting the flow of recovered paper to their mills.

Smith & Harroff surmised that the problem was caused not by the paper industry’s reluctance to recycle used paper. The industry had in fact invested enormous sums in new recycling machines to meet consumer demand for more paper with recycled content. The problem was that few politicians believed the industry was responding fast enough to the vocal demand for paper recycling.

Smith & Harroff encouraged AF&PA to set a voluntary goal to recover 50 percent of all the paper used by Americans in the year 2000. The goal became a powerful performance-based message that demonstrated industry’s leadership to elected officials and recycling activists.

The so-called "50 percent goal" became a feature of print advertising and brochures seen by recycling coordinators, printers and other large paper users.

When paper mills needed more high-quality used office papers as a raw material to supply their new recycling mills, S&H created The Paper Recycling Advocates. This cadre of trained industry spokespersons explained to the news media and to recycling interests around the country the importance of recovering not only used newspapers, boxes and magazines, but also more high-quality used office papers.

THE RESULTS

Promotion of the "50 percent goal" positioned the paper industry as recycling leaders – not followers – and successfully turned the debate away from recycled content to overall paper recovery. After growing recognition of AF&PA’s "goal" by environmental groups and recycling coordinators, the Federal government dropped its arbitrary minimum content requirement. Meanwhile, the paper recycling debate has gradually shifted from the amount of paper recovered to the quality of used paper needed in paper manufacturing.