the paper trail,

Powell's City of Books isn't just a place to take out-of-town guests.

It's a place that holds our culture
told through local writers likeBeverly Cleary, who told stories about children growing up on Klickitat Street,and Ursula K. Le Guin, whose imagined worlds helped us better understand our own.Very different writers, but both paid attention to place, its people, and the cultures they inhabit.Their stories were told on paper when time passed at the pace of the page.

The mail arrived once a day through a slot in the door. Less about solicitations, payment requests, or packages, the letter carrier brought word of who got married, who had a baby, who was frail, who was grieving, and who was no longer speaking to that one cousin once removed.For the larger world, there were newspapers–morning and evening editions bringing politics, finance, and trade; box scores; classifieds; editorials; fashion; comics; and, before the paper was folded and put down, a look at tomorrow’s weather.

And books, pages bound between hard covers, didn’t just line our shelves. We read them–at our desks, or curled up on the davenport. They were sources of deep knowledge and passports to places both real and imagined.Some books were so cherished, their spines weakened from being opened again and again, their pages sticky with jam, their jackets in tatters.We loved them anyway, particularly the ones out of reach, high up on a shelf. When finally taken down and opened, forgotten letters and notes, a photograph—fly out like feathers.That paper came from the forest.Oregon’s forests helped build one of the most significant timber and paper economies in the United States. Towns and cities grew alongside the rivers that powered the mills. Generations of workers turned trees into lumber and plywood, while the wood chips left behind became raw material for Paper.

But overharvesting strained our forests. Mills polluted our rivers. And as the industry changed, many mill towns hollowed out.Today, Paper is no longer the primary way we make sense of the world. Our screens do much of that now.But Paper hasn’t disappeared.Paper wraps our take-out orders and cushions the contents of boxes delivered to our doors. Lightweight, pliable, and made from renewable fiber, it can replace some packaging that’s difficult to recycle. When Paper is properly recovered, its fibers can be reused.Here in Oregon, we are reshaping the system that makes that possible. Under Oregon’s Recycling Modernization Act, producers now share in funding the collection and processing of materials they put into circulation.

At the other end of that system is where we come in: at the bin.

PAPER

Fiber is the resource.

For recycling, the question to ask is:

Can it be recovered?

Paper fibers can only be recycled a handful of times.Each time paper is recycled, the fibers get shorter and weaker until there isn’t enough useful fiber left to recover.

That's why tissues and paper towels do not belong in the bin. Their fibers have reached the end of their useful lives.Nothing to recover.

sort it out

PAPER

Some of these things
don't belong here.

Can you tell which ones?

The Difference is the design.

Milk and broth cartons are made in layers, allowing recyclers to separate and recover the paper fibers.Most frozen-food packaging uses coatings or combinations of materials that make the paper fibers difficult to separate and reuse.

Milk & Broth Cartons

YES

Frozen Food Packaging

NO

Deep Dive

why

are frozen-food boxes different?

when in doubt

ask

• METRO

use well

bring your own

Take your favorite mug to the coffee shop–or keep a reusable cup or thermos with you when you’re on the go.One small choice. One less disposable cup, its plastic lining, and plastic lid.Insignificant? Maybe.But did you know if you fold a piece of paper in half 104 times, mathematically, its thickness would exceed the observable universe.That’s the power of compounding.Tell two friends.#SiSuSuSiDoMore.

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notice the packaging

Next time you buy something familiar, take a closer look at what it comes wrapped in.Start with the company's website. Search for answers to these questions:

Look specifically for PCR–post-consumer recycled content–material that has already been used, recovered, and made into something new.

And remember, "recyclable" doesn’t necessarily mean it can be recycled where you live. Check with METRO.

• METRO

Promises or progress?

Is the company eliminating packaging, making it lighter, or offering refillable and reusable options–or simply replacing one disposable material with another?Are they measuring their impact? Look for a baseline year, a target date, and reported results.Ask: What does this company put into our waste system, and what responsibility does it take for what happens next?And after you’ve done all that research, read the sustainability report, deciphered the packaging claims, and checked with METRO..."Gee, what was I ordering, anyway?"

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eat what you buy

One of the most impactful things we can do for the climate is also one of the simplest:

Consume what we already have.

For many of us, abundance feels like security. A full refrigerator. A freezer packed to the edges. Something extra in the pantry, just in case.But abundance can make food hard to find.We buy another package because we’ve forgotten the one buried behind the ice cream. We freeze leftovers and find them six months later covered in freezer burn.The average Oregonian throws away about 120 pounds of food at home each year.At the same time, roughly 1 in 8 Oregonians experiences food insecurity.What gets thrown away isn’t just the food–or what we paid for it.It’s the land and water used to grow it.The labor to harvest and process it.The energy to package, transport, refrigerate, and freeze it....only to throw it away in the end?

One of the most impactful things we can do for the climate is also one of the simplest:

**🥚What a good egg looks like.🪺 **

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what type of tree is used to make paper

In the Pacific Northwest, paper often starts with what remains after logs are turned into lumber. Those logs come primarily from Douglas fir, western hemlock, true firs, spruce, and pine, with hardwoods such as red alder and cottonwood also contributing fiber.Sawmills produce chips, sawdust, shavings, and other wood by-products. Much of that material isn’t discarded. Wood chips can become pulp–the fiber used to make paper and packaging.📃✂️But trees are not the only source of paper fiber. Paper can also be made from agricultural leftovers such as wheat and rice straw and sugarcane bagasse, as well as plants including flax and bamboo.Bamboo is often seen as a “green” alternative. It grows extraordinarily quickly and can be harvested in just a few years.But fast-growing doesn’t necessarily mean low-impact.Much of the bamboo used for papermaking is grown and processed in Asia. Producing and transporting it requires resources, and its environmental advantages aren't always as clear as the marketing suggests. ** Research ** points to a more complicated picture: sustainability depends not simply on how quickly a plant grows, but on how it is cultivated, processed, and brought to market.

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how much packaging do we consume ?

Oregon DEQ specifically identifies the growth of e-commerce as a source of increased packaging use and waste. In Oregon, packaging accounts for an estimated 20-30% of household and business waste.Nationally, the numbers are similar. According to the U.S. EPA, containers and packaging account for 28.1% of the municipal solid waste generated in 2018–more than 82 million tons a year.Paper and paperboard packaging accounted for 14.3% of the entire waste stream.Every online purchase requires something to contain, protect, and transport it: cardboard boxes, paper cushioning, plastic films, padded envelopes, and other shipping materials.We’ve become remarkably good at making things arrive at our doors–a vast network of forests, factories, machines, and people makes it possible.Then the box crosses our threshold, and suddenly it becomes something to get rid of.But does it?

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when is dinner?

Why frozen-food boxes are different

Part of the answer:

A milk carton and a frozen food box seem to belong together; both are paper-based, and both hold food, but the similarity ends there.The dairy industry has long been tied to schools, public health, and regional identity. Milk, once a part of everyday life, came to symbolize trust. As consumption grew, so did the waste– and with it, the potential for that trust to erode.The dairy industry helped build a coordinated recycling system, working with packaging producers like Tetra Pak to ensure those cartons had a viable afterlife.A milk carton is designed to hold a perishable but relatively stable liquid: it needs protection from light and air, but not from extreme conditions.Its structure addresses those needs. Layers of paper provide rigidity, while thin films of plastic and sometimes aluminum create a protective barrier that delays disintegration. Paper fiber remains the dominant component. With the right infrastructure, those layers can be separated, and the fibers recovered. The packaging is complex but designed to come apart.Frozen food is a different species. Here, the promise is convenience: dinner, ready in under twenty minutes.That convenience requires packaging that can endure freezer to microwave–moisture to heat. Withstanding those extremes means the paper is often treated with polymer coatings or laminated layers that bond tightly to the paper substrate.These layers don’t separate easily. In the pulping process, water and agitation break down the paper into individual fibers. But polymer coatings resist water and remain bonded to some of those fibers. When the plastic is screened out, usable fiber goes with it.The frozen-food industry is also more fragmented. Unlike dairy, it spans everything from vegetables and pizza to ice cream and prepared meals. With so many different requirements, there is no simple path to recyclability.Until recently, the cost of disposal was largely absent from the producer's income statement. A company had to account for what it cost to make the package, fill it, ship it, and sell it–but not what it would cost to deal with that package once it was empty.Recycling is not driven solely by technical possibility; it is shaped by economics.Milk cartons, once processed, can yield fibers that retain value. Frozen food boxes tend to yield less recoverable fiber at a higher processing cost. In a market-driven system, the question is not simply whether it can be recycled, but whether it makes sense to do so.Oregon’s Recycling Modernization Act begins to shift that equation. Producers are increasingly responsible for the end-of-life impacts of their packaging. Materials that are harder to process may cost more than materials that integrate more easily into the system.The difference between a milk carton and a frozen food box is not just about materials.It is a result of choices–what industries prioritize, what the infrastructure supports, what costs are accounted for, and what we, as consumers, choose and demand.

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How much do we buy?

Americans spent approximately 14.4 billion on toilet tissue at retail in the year ending June 15, 2025.Much of that toilet paper is made from virgin wood fiber–fiber that has not previously been made into paper.But toilet paper can also be made from recovered paper.In Halsey, Oregon, Georgia-Pacific makes ARIA toilet paper from 100% recycled fiber, primarily from recovered office and school paper.Georgia-Pacific reports that compared with its previous virgin-fiber formulation, producing ARIA results in 67% lower greenhouse-gas emissions and uses 50% less water. ARIA also earns an A+ from NRDC’s The Issue with Tissue Scorecard.ARIA is made in Oregon, but its hard to find here.

Halsey, Oregon

Georgia-Pacific employs hundreds of people in Oregon making toilet paper and paper towels for private labels and its familiar brands Angel Soft, and Quilted Northern.It also makes ARIA, a three-ply tissue made from 100% recycled fiber and packaged in recycled paper.The mill is growing. Georgia-Pacific announced a $150 million expansion to increase toilet-paper production.Georgia-Pacific is owned by Koch, Inc., a privately held company based in Wichita, Kansas.A locally made roll from yesterday's paper–made here, owned elsewhere, and difficult to find on a local shelf.Amazon has it.

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Oregon once imported wastepaper.

Blue Heron in Oregon City and the Newberg Paper Mill turned old newspapers and other recovered paper into new products. They needed so much fiber that Oregon actually imported wastepaper from outside the state.Blue Heron closed in 2011, after competition from Asian paper mills helped drive up the price of the resource, recovered paper. Newberg was idled in 2015 and permanently closed the following year. Oregon lost two major local buyers for the mixed paper collected through its recycling program.Chinese mills needed recovered fiber for the country's growing paper and packaging industry. They paid higher prices and accepted more contamination. After the Oregon mills closed, China became the primary customer for Oregon's recovered paper, buying roughly two-thirds.Then China changed the rules.In 2017-18, it restricted imports of unsorted recovered paper and imposed a contamination limit of just 0.5%.Oregon's contamination rate for recovered materials is roughly 8-13%.Today, some recovered paper stays in the Northwest; some goes to mills overseas. Oregon requires processors to document where those materials go and to demonstrate that they reach responsible end markets.

We've been part of the cover story before.

In 1947, the Crown Zellerbach mill in West Linn developed a method for coating paper with clay and carbonate, producing the smooth surface needed for high-quality color printing.By the 1950s, the West Linn mill supplied coated paper for magazines including TIME and LIFE throughout the western United States–and to Hawaii, Alaska, and Japan.