Office Paper

County recycling officials working to change the throw-away mind-setof Carroll residents haven't neglected to rid their own rank and file of wasteful habits.Tons of newspaper, office paper and aluminumproducts discarded by county employees that previously would have consumed costly space in Carroll landfills now is placed on Wednesdays in county office building hallways for eventual delivery to recyclingfacilities.The county's in-house recycling effort -- which takes place at the main County Office Building in Westminster, satellite government offices, the Board of Education, several schools, Carroll Circuit Courts and the County Detention Center -- started in December 1989, two months after its first recycling coordinator was appointed.

There's something ironic about county bureaucrats' carrying off little potted trees back to the same offices where they shuffle through mountains of paper.But it seemed a fitting symbol of a new recycling effort launched yesterday in 14 county office buildings."You are the key to making our paper-recycling program a success.We're asking citizens to recycle. We have to set the example," County Executive Robert R. Neall told the 41 recycling captains who were commissioned with the presentation of potted white pine seedlings.

American workers throw out the equivalent of more than 1,500 trees -- recyclable letterhead stationery, memos, copier paper, typing paper and computer paper -- every week.We throw out about 85 percent of the office paper we use -- enough to build a 12-foot-high wall of paper from New York to California.Every time we recycle a ton of it, we save the equivalent of 380 gallons of oil and 7,000 gallons of water.What does your office use that can be recycled?*WHITE PAPER* It includes: white computer paper, stationery (letterhead and bond)