My visit to my nearest Santa Fe County dump transfer station was disappointing.
Indeed, the woman who manages it again welcomed me to take all the newspaper (and other paper) I want, just as she had two years ago when I asked. That part's good.
But here's the bummer. (Bummer for me, at least.)
Santa Fe County has a big machine that can separate mixed recycling waste and now only separates cardboard and glass. Plastic, cans and paper are all thrown into the same recyling bins at the transfer stations.
Used to be there was a large, walk-in storage container for only paper and where people carried and stacked their bags of paper or their bundled bales. That's what I was planning to pull my paper from. It no longer exists.
My next step is to talk to the local newspaper folks about how I can get their bundled/baled rack returns that they send for recycling. I MAY have to pay something for those these days. Will know after I've talked with them. (Today or Monday.)
When I talked to a circulation manager at one regional newspaper regarding this about six years ago, the papers were having to pay to have the bales hauled off to be shipped to paper recycling pulping plants in the U.S. or overseas. So at that time I was welcome to grab them for free so long as I would take at least a full pallet load at a time. (They didn't want me breaking open stretch-wrapped pallets and taking only a portion of its bounty.) I just had to time the grab so that I got there before the paper-pulp broker's freight hauler any time I wanted a bunch. That MIGHT still be the case.
However, the recycled paper business has really taken off, wholesale and retail paper prices have increased by about 50% in the last five years, newspaper circulation and rack sales are way down, newspapers are really hurting for income now, and the whole market and opportunity may have changed. Will report what I learn.
Have a few other ideas for how to get five to 10 tons of bundled newspapers for free or virtually no cost if this doesn't pan out, but nearly all are much more time consuming.
Would love to hear others' experiences in locating reliable free, bulk sources of paper.
Newsprint is my paper of choice, but I'm open to any free bulk source of non-slick paper.
Best,
kwc
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