The Large Mixing Bowl

In my last post, I shared some interesting information about Marcal Recycled Paper Products; and now, I have more! Last week I was thrilled to be invited to take a private tour of Marcal Recycyled Paper Product's manufacturing plant in New Jersey; it was such a neat experience.

Since I published my own print magazine for two years, I realize what it's like to be in a paper plant, but this was something different. First off, there were NO chemical smells. That was a pleasant, but no surprise because Marcal doesn't bleach or add harmful chemicals to their bath or kitchen paper products. Another amazing thing was seeing stacks and stacks of recycled paper obtained by Marcal from various sources (saving it from landfills); some as basic as YOUR very own blue recycle bin from your office. Yep, that's right, they take homeless, unwanted paper and re-use it. What a novel idea. NO CLEAR cutting or use of trees by these guys, no way! Just pure recycled pre and post consumer paper waste.

You should have seen the huge mixing bowl (about the size of my kitchen) where they'd pour in the tons of old newspaper, magazines, office waste paper, etc. and add water to make a "soup" of paper. Then after several filtering processes, and steps that, as a layperson I'm not going to attempt to explain, out comes HUGE reams of beautiful (no guilt) paper, spun out and sent on to the manufacturing line. I've never seen such a large roll of paper towel or toilet paper in my life. Kind of reminds me what King Kong or Godzilla might use!

As I watched Marcal's new product, Small Steps by Marcal slide down the line with it's beautiful yellow packaging, I actually got chills. Chills because, as a mother of three, I KNOW how important our planet is and if companies like Marcal are going to take the steps to preserve it, well--then they have MY vote of confidence. Everything they do is sustainable, from NOT using ANY trees in their paper production to maintaining sustainable business practices.

It's estimated that each American uses approximately 700 pounds of paper each year. Wouldn't it be great if we could lessen that number? Consider my family of five, we're consuming approximately 3,500 pounds a year. You do the math. Doesn't it make sense to consume the "used" paper we already have, rather than putting it in landfills? Just food for thought, or paper for your...