The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s study on municipal solid waste generation, recycling, and disposal found that there was 250,000,000 metric tons of MSW disposed of in the United States in 2010 alone [EPA]). The figure below shows the weight generated per year of some of the major constituent materials of the MSW from 1960 to 2010 in the United States. Over the last few decades, the generation of MSW has changed substantially. Solid waste generation has increased from 3.66 to 4.43 pounds per person per day between 1980 and 2010. Additionally, over the past 5 years paper products alone have accounted for 31% of the total MSW by weight before recycling.

Due to environmental concern, government regulations and economic considerations, there has been a consistent increased effort in recycling endeavours over the past years. Recycling rates have increased from less than 10% of MSW generated in 1980 to about 34% in 2010. Additionally, the disposal of waste to a landfill has decreased from 89% of the amount generated in 1980 to about 54% of MSW in 2010. As seen in the figure below, the highest recovery rates in 2010 were achieved with paper and paperboard products. More than 62 percent of the paper generated was recycled. As a result, recycling paper products not only affects the upstream processes in paper production (where raw materials are acquired), but also has consequences on the downstream portion of paper use (waste-disposal).