Recycled Paper

No, buying new 360 Vodka won't solve overpopulation issues or reverse the effects of global warming. But choosing what's being billed as the first "eco-friendly" vodka, instead of the one next to it, could make an itty-bitty contribution to environmental efforts. Here's why: 360 Vodka is produced in Missouri using locally grown grains, which reduces carbon emissions from transportation; the company also claims it uses a highly energy-efficient filtering and drying process and that nothing goes to waste.

No, buying new 360 Vodka won't solve overpopulation issues or reverse the effects of global warming. But choosing what's being billed as the first "eco-friendly" vodka, instead of the one next to it, could make an itty-bitty contribution to environmental efforts. Here's why: 360 Vodka is produced in Missouri using locally grown grains, which reduces carbon emissions from transportation; the company also claims it uses a highly energy-efficient filtering and drying process and that nothing goes to waste.

What will you do with this newspaper when you are done with it? Pitch it in the garbage? Put it down for the puppy? Perhaps you will recycle it. Hundreds of thousands of American households do.Recycling paper is a good thing to do. According to Worldwatch Institute, every ton of paper recycled saves approximately 17 trees, 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity and 7,000 gallons of water. It keeps 60 pounds of pollutants out of the air and 30 pounds of pollutants out of the water -- byproducts of making paper from scratch.

Whether cut, shredded, glued or sewn, the stuff of landfills becomes art under the influence of Nadya Volicer. The New England artist took over McDaniel College's Peterson Hall for a week, transforming the Rice Gallery into a recycling landscape called This Land Is Your Land(fill), an installation on display through Sept. 28. Volicer's papery landscape represents the literal and figurative: Inspired by the song within the title, she designed her own America, complete with the Rocky Mountains of the West, the East's Appalachians and a Mississippi River down the middle.

Did you know you can get garbage bags, ball point pens and even park benches made from recycled plastic? That building insulation can be made from recycled newspaper? That door mats are being made from recycled tires? Hundreds of American companies manufacture products from recycled materials. At their own expense, they've developed the technology and equipment to produce the items. Now we have to make sure somebody buys them.Our current project is convincing state and local governments to buy recycled products.

Conserving and recycling don't have to be onerous tasks; holiday chores are plentiful enough. Here are five easy ways to make this Christmas a "green" one in any household.*Recycle your holiday tree. Check with nurseries, stores and municipal recycling programs: After the holidays, Baltimore County's sanitation bureau and IKEA in White Marsh, for example, will turn the tree into mulch or wood chips.*Special ornaments aren't needed for a "green" Christmas. Just make a point of decorating with items that won't be thrown away; instead of using disposables, start a collection.

- A roundup of new products and servicesHistoric Harbor ornamentsBeautify your Christmas tree while helping to preserve Fells Point and Federal Hill with the purchase of the first annual Historic Harbor ornament, sold by the Preservation Society. The ornament features a sailboat and view of the waterfront in Fells Point in a 24-karat gold finish. The ornaments are $12.50, including tax, and are available at the Robert Long House, 812 S. Ann St. (410) 675-6750. Have you ever thought about what happens to your plastic shower curtain liner after you throw it away?

When personal computers first appeared in offices a decade ago, seers forecast a future in which paper documents would be obsolete, replaced by flurries of electrons and phosphors.Instead, according to one study, American businesses generated a record 775 billion pieces of paper last year.So much for the paperless office. Computers appear to have fueled the rise in paper use, not retarded it.Last week's column discussed new printer technologies that eliminate disposable parts, which is good for the environment.

Fact: An estimated 504 tons of paper were dropped off at Baltimore County's 10 recycling centers in January, enough newspapers to build a stack nearly nine miles tall.Fact: Baltimore County uses roughly 49 million sheets of paper every year, enough to make a stack about three miles tall.County officials, inspired by how much paper is being dropped off, want to make sure that more of the paper used by the county is recycled.Yesterday, County Council members Melvin G. Mintz, D-2nd, and William A. Howard IV, R-6th, held a hearing on their proposed ordinance to require that 40 percent of the paper purchased by the county be recycled paper.

Should government spend extra money to buy recycled, or low-pollution products? At least three Howard County councilmen appear to think so. They are supporting a bill due for introduction Monday night that would allow the county to buy supplies that cost up to 5 percent more than low bid if the material has high recycled content or lower pollution potential. The idea's roots come from a 10-year old federal purchasing directive that was revised in 1998. West Columbia Democrat Ken Ulman is sponsoring the county bill, supported by the council's two other Democrats.

Should government spend extra money to buy recycled, or low-pollution products? At least three Howard County councilmen appear to think so. They are supporting a bill due for introduction Monday night that would allow the county to buy supplies that cost up to 5 percent more than low bid if the material has high recycled content or lower pollution potential. The idea's roots come from a 10-year-old federal purchasing directive that was revised in 1998. West Columbia Democrat Ken Ulman is sponsoring the county bill, supported by the council's two other Democrats.

Should government spend extra money to buy recycled, or low-pollution products? At least three Howard County councilmen appear to think so. They are supporting a bill due for introduction Monday night that would allow the county to buy supplies that cost up to 5 percent more than low bid if the material has high recycled content or lower pollution potential. The idea's roots come from a 10-year old federal purchasing directive that was revised in 1998. West Columbia Democrat Ken Ulman is sponsoring the county bill, supported by the council's two other Democrats.

The city Board of Estimates rejected yesterday all bids for recycling mixed paper after deciding the city's purchasing bureau had not properly advertised the job. Two companies protested the proposed award of the $3.1 million contract to Office Paper Systems Inc., saying they had not received notification that the job was coming up for bid after the previous company apparently ran into financial trouble. After hearing the complaints filed by Owl Corp. and Canusa Corp., the five board members, who oversee city expenditures, spoke privately for about five minutes.

RECYCLING IS essential to the future of our planet. It offers a practical solution to a critical environmental problem. Fortunately, recycling is easy to do and everyone can make an important contribution."

ROCKVILLE -- Montgomery County's ambitious recycling program is back on track, just one week after Executive Douglas M. Duncan declared it dead at the hands of "crazy" environmentalists and the County Council.A beaming Duncan, flanked by members of the council, announced the terms of a new contract with Office Paper Systems of Gaithersburg that would help the county meet its goal of 50 percent recycling by the end of next year."We can now move forward," said council President Isiah Leggett, who brokered the deal after Duncan's outburst at a news conference last week.

Howard County's recycling program, built on the premise of saving money while saving the environment, has reached a crisis: It will soon cost more to recycle cans, bottles and yard waste than to bury them in a landfill.That doesn't mean residents should start tossing their cola bottles and grass cuttings into the trash. County officials and recycling experts say market forces could restore the profitability of recyclables in just a few months.But for now, the problem spotlights an economic quandary at the heart of the recycling revolution across the nation: Can the demand for recyclables keep pace with the ever-growing supply?

Falling prices for recycled paper has caused a $160,000 shortfall in Howard County's recycling program -- and raised fears that it might someday be cheaper to send all the county's trash to landfills.For several years, Simkins Industries in Catonsville has charged the county nothing to crush its paper into 1-ton blocks, truck them to its plant and recycle them for sale on the wholesale paper market, said John O'Hara, the county's waste-management chief.But the declining price of recycled paper prompted Simkins in December to stop paying for the first step -- turning the paper into blocks for shipment.

Caustic cardsLike it or not, Political Incorrectness is everywhere. Now comes a line of Politically Incorrect (though environmentally correct) greeting cards from Recycled Paper Greetings of Chicago. The cards, printed on 100 percent recycled paper, take gibes at Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives. Among the savaged: Rush Limbaugh, Ross Perot and Bill and Hillary Clinton. The cards are $1.50 each and are available at greeting card stores and some bookshops. If you need help finding them in your area, call (800)

Falling prices for recycled paper has caused a $160,000 shortfall in Howard County's recycling program -- and raised fears that it might someday be cheaper to send all the county's trash to landfills.For several years, Simkins Industries in Catonsville has charged the county nothing to crush its paper into 1-ton blocks, truck them to its plant and recycle them for sale on the wholesale paper market, said John O'Hara, the county's waste-management chief.But the declining price of recycled paper prompted Simkins in December to stop paying for the first step -- turning the paper into blocks for shipment.

Baltco is doing a good job in recyclingI am writing in response to the letter written by Jerome S. McManus -- recycling in Baltimore County (Forum, June 28).There have been several negative letters on this subject, but most are from folks who have just started the program.Some of us in Baltimore County have been recycling for a while, but I suppose we, too, were apprehensive at first.I'm sorry, but many of us feel the program is working very well. It's one of the easiest systems around -- requiring just a minimum of preparation and sorting.