Environment

ENVIRONMENT

News and magazine publishers care about the environment.

News/Media Alliance members have had long-standing engagement in environmental stewardship and initiatives that reflect publishers’ desire to support responsible, economically-sound environmental policies and practices related to the full lifecycles of newspaper and magazine products, all the way from raw materials to finished copies.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach that holds producers responsible for the end-of-life of their products. This can include both financial and operational responsibility and covered products may include paper and/or packaging in the legislation. This type of legislation has gained interest, particularly at the state level, and the News/Media Alliance has been actively monitoring EPR implementation in several states as well as working to ensure newspapers and magazines are exempted from new EPR proposals nationwide.

Additional expenses imposed on newspapers and magazines would deprive residents of news, with new packaging requirements or end-of-life fees making home delivery of printed newspapers and magazines unsustainably expensive. These costly burdens on industries that are already experiencing major economic disruption would not yield environmental benefit, as newspapers and magazines have been responsible environmental stewards for many years.

For more than 30 years, both newspapers and magazines have encouraged their readers to recycle. Newspapers are recycled at a rate of more than 64 percent, higher than any other product, and magazines have similar success rates while recycling 100 percent of leftover retail product.  Newspapers and magazines are environmentally friendly. Newspapers use soy-based non-toxic inks, so newsprint is fully compostable and biodegrades in a matter of months. Magazines use linseed-oil-based non-toxic inks and soluble adhesives that do not contaminate or disrupt the recycling process and are similarly 100 percent biodegradable within months. Both newspapers and magazines can be recycled multiple times before the fibers become too short and weak to be reused.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, newspapers comprise 1.7 percent of municipal solid waste and magazines comprise 0.3 percent.  The newspaper category also includes directories and other forms of printed paper, so the percentage of actual discarded newspapers is lower but by an unknown amount.

While already only a very small portion of municipal waste, the trend is expected to continue to less hard copy newspaper and magazine waste in the future, even without the imposition of costly new EPR fees. Retail outlets are shrinking with retail sales down. Further, the current network to collect unsold products is already very fragile without the burden of additional fees. The movement from multiple stream recycling to single stream has hurt magazine reuse rates as consumer-read “used” magazines cannot be recycled to magazine paper because of cross contamination from single stream recycling.

As overall print volumes are declining; paper manufacturers are cutting supply and repurposing printing/writing papers, and shortages are occurring. Newspapers and magazines are increasingly moving to digital; therefore, by the time an EPR system is put into place, there will be less print demand and a reduced amount entering the waste stream system, meaning even bigger fee burdens on fewer publications.

Latest Articles


‘State of the States’ Member Briefing
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‘State of the States’ Member Briefing

February 29, 2024 - The News/Media Alliance will host a virtual ‘State of the States’ briefing and discussion exclusively for Alliance members covering the top state legislative trends impacting the news, magazine and digital media industry ... Read More
News Media Alliance, MPA Submit Joint Comments to SEC Proposed Rule on Climate-Related Disclosures
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News Media Alliance, MPA Submit Joint Comments to SEC Proposed Rule on Climate-Related Disclosures

The News Media Alliance and MPA - The Association of Magazine Media submitted joint comments on June 17 to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed rule requiring registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports ... Read More
MPA Submits Comments on Proposed Climate-Related Disclosures Rule
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MPA Submits Comments on Proposed Climate-Related Disclosures Rule

MPA submitted comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its proposed rules on the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors ... Read More
Fact Sheet: Effective Environmental Policy Should Improve Environmental Performance, Not Penalize Environmentally Friendly Magazines
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Fact Sheet: Effective Environmental Policy Should Improve Environmental Performance, Not Penalize Environmentally Friendly Magazines

Inclusion of paper in EPR programs won’t increase recycling but would unfairly target magazine media ... Read More
Newsy Activities for Family Fun During Social Distancing
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Newsy Activities for Family Fun During Social Distancing

As we enter the second month of social distancing due to COVID-19, many people will be getting cabin fever (if you haven’t already), especially kids. We know it can be difficult with everyone under one roof 24/7, so we’ve rounded up some fun “news”-themed activities your kids — or you! ... Read More
Paper Revolution Ad
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Paper Revolution Ad

Paper recovery for recycling is a national success because of millions of Americans' commitment to recycling at home, work and school. Newspaper recycling is a big part of this overall success; nearly 70 percent of newspapers are recycled into new newsprint, boxboard and other products ... Read More