Materials / Paper

Paper

Mixed paper still sells, at about $23 a ton, and newspaper sorted on its own brings four times that. Landfilling paper is the worst option because it makes methane.

Where it goes

Solid border: confirmed. Dashed: likely. Dotted: open.

The numbers

Mixed paper, 2023

103 tons, $2,401.05, about $23 per ton Town data

Newspaper, 2023

20 tons, $1,862.00, about $93 per ton, roughly four times mixed Town data

Per-ton swing

About $108 for mixed paper: $23 earned plus about $85 in tipping fees not paid Inference

Methane

Traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year window Background

What the records show

The claim that paper is better burned or buried is the weakest one in the Facebook thread, and the numbers say why.

Mixed paper still sells. The town moved 103 tons in 2023 for $2,401.05, about $23 a ton. Newspaper sorted on its own moved 20 tons for $1,862, about $93 a ton, roughly four times the mixed price. That gap is the whole argument for keeping newspaper separate.

Each ton of mixed paper sold swings the town's books by about $108: $23 earned plus about $85 in tipping fees not paid.

Rotting is the worst option. Landfilled paper decomposes without oxygen and produces methane, which traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year window, and landfills keep emitting for decades. Paper and cardboard are among the largest organic fractions in a landfill.

Burning isn't the smart shortcut either. The tipping fee still gets paid, you get one burst of energy, and the fiber is gone for good. Paper fiber recycles about five to seven times before it's too short to use. The costs of burying and burning aren't zero. They're invisible.

Still open

• Who buys the paper, and what they make from it.

Tracked on the open questions page.

Sources

• #2 2023 Recycled Materials/Revenue Breakdown (PDF). Town of Peterborough Town data