The Paper Chase: Can you recycle another pound?

(GLOBE FILE PHOTO)

Excerpts from the Globe's environmental blog.

There has been an enormous amount of academic study around recycling: Who recycles, what motivates people - even how best to use psychology to stimulate "pro-recycling" behavior.

Yet we all know one key factor involved in the lack of recycling: laziness.

Now, MassRecycle, a coalition aimed at increasing recycling rates, is trying to get more paper into the blue bins. They don't use the word lazy as a reason for a lack of recycling; they use the word confused. They say many people probably don't realize how much paper they can recycle these days. Glossy magazines and envelopes are fine. Don't worry about staples and paper clips and throw the Cheerios box in, too.

The group just launched an ambitious campaign to get Massachusetts residents to recycle a million more tons of paper annually. It's a lofty goal; in 2006 we generated 3 million tons of paper waste and recycled about 1.4 million tons of it, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The group points to a 2000 Northeast Recycling council report that suggests recycling supports more than 1,400 businesses and 19,000 jobs and generates about $64 million in state tax revenues.

Add to that the interesting tidbit that much of our paper and cardboard is remanufactured right in Massachusetts into corrugated cardboard at Rand-Whitney in Worcester and into cereal boxes, book covers (including the last Harry Potter book), and game boards at the Newark Group's Fitchburg plant.

If state residents and businesses recycled more than a million pounds of paper, MassRecycle officials say, the Bay State would reduce 3 million tons of greenhouse gases and reduce energy needs by the equivalent of 3.8 million barrels of oil. Go to www.MassRecyclesPaper.org for more information.

BETH DALEY