Recycling Newspapers

Introduction

The concept of a circular economy can be defined as a production system or consumption that encourages the prevention of waste production. The production, supply, and consumption operate a circular system that allows the product to go back where it started after reaching the end-user. The economic system is calculated to profit from business firms, the natural environment, and the community. Business firms save on production costs by recycling or reusing materials. The environment is saved from pollution, and the community earns from returning waste to the manufacturer to recycle or reuse. In a circular economy, waste products are recycled or reused to make useful new products that are sold to consumers (Lacy, Long, & Spindler, 2020). The value of a source is maximally exploited to ensure the efficient use of available resources. The circular economy is premised on the recycling and reuse of products.

Paper is one of the widely used products in the modern world to print newspapers. Everywhere there is printing and selling of newspapers, creating a high demand for the productpaper (Salim, 2018). In Britain, there are so many print media firms that produce and distribute newspapers across the country. Newspapers are bought by corporates, government offices, and ordinary persons to read and get information. The demands for paper increase with urbanization and population growth. Each time individuals buy newspapers, they increase pressure on the supply chain (Lacy, Long, & Spindler, 2020). The use of newspapers creates pressure on trees and other sources of pulp, which in turn impacts the natural environment. The typical linear supply chain of newspapers is as below: Newspapers printing Company-Newspapers distributor-agents-end users or customers. The newspaper printing firm is usually a print media company such as The Telegraph.

Newspapers from the company move through the hands of distributors and sales agents to reach the readers. Once the readers have consumed the news, they decide how to dispose of the waste, an old newspaper.

Discussion

Opportunities

The opportunities for creating a circularity of newspapers include the probability of buying old newspapers at a lower cost and recycling them before using them to print new ones. Newspaper printing firms consume large quantities of papers each day to produce news articles that are sold to consumers (Riddle, 2020). Large print media firms are strong enough to run newspaper recycling plants because they are sources of raw material that is needed. Where a single firm does not produce enough newspapers that it can track down to recycle, it can link up with other firms in the industry to get enough old newspapers to recycle. England has big print media firms such as The Telegraph, The Mail, and the Independent, all producing tones of newspapers daily (Riddle, 2020). Consequently, there is already enough raw material that can be gathered to power feed into the recycling plant.

The ready market for recycled newspapers also offers an opportunity and impetus to invest in the recycling business. Print media that runs a newspaper recycling plant can be the key consumer of products it producers (Riddle, 2020). In this respect, each newspaper company can establish a paper recycling plant that is less costly to guarantee itself the supply of printing papers that are needed for the production of newspapers. Large print firms have challenges of getting a supply of papers at a relatively lower price, an issue that can be solved through newspaper recycling (Lacy, Long, & Spindler, 2020). As a consequence, there is an opportunity for print media to develop their sources of printing papers.

Moreover, most consumers dump newspapers after reading and focus on the next newspaper that the company will print. This offers an opportunity for newspaper printing firms to collect such newspapers and recycle them. Buying old newspapers would be attractive to customers who had been disposing of old newspapers without any gain in return. Company and government offices sometimes shred or burn old newspapers, creating unwarranted losses of a resource that can be reused or recycled (Wilson, 2015). In this respect, companies that print newspapers can link up with consumers through agents and distributors to ensure that officers do not burn or dispose of the old newspapers in an uneconomic manner but return them to the company at a smaller fee. By collecting old newspapers, the company will be helping consumers to dump the waste and also giving them a token in return (Riddle, 2020).

Furthermore, there is an opportunity for the recycling firm to collaborate with newspapers printing firms to offer discounts to the customers who return used papers to the company for recycling. The incentive would ensure that the company and consumers create a symbiotic relationship in their trade that promotes the circularity of the product (Riddle, 2020).

Discounts can include a free newspaper on a certain number of old newspapers that are returned or low priced newspapers. This would encourage a circular movement of the product, starting from the producer to the vendor, end consumer, and then back to the producer.

The availability of paper recycling technology and experts also offers an opportunity to be exploited by newspaper printing companies to embrace the paper industry's circular economy. The technology is readily available, which provides an opportunity for easier purchase and running because there are already enough experts to run the project (Lacy, Long, & Spindler, 2020). The advancement in technology has made it easier to recycle paper for various purposes, including making paper for printing newspapers, making cardboards, producing tissue papers, and papers for wrapping products. This implies that old newspapers are still valuable to the economy. At the same time, the existing newspaper recycling plants can be studied to determine how viable the new firm can be (Riddle, 2020). Consequently, the available technology and experts in paper recycling can be exploited to establish a new firm that will recycle newspapers in England.

Moreover, the high production of newspapers means that there is plenty of old newspapers outside there that can be put to use. According to Virtanen and Nilsson (2013), the higher the production the higher the number of newspapers that can be recycled. The performance of a recycling firm depends on the availability of raw materials. In this case, old newspapers, which are readily available from end-users. It is also imperative to note that not all newspapers printing firms have the capacity to recycle their papers. As a result, an opportunity for a high supply of old newspapers for recycling exists for a newspaper firm that can start recycling newspapers.

To make the linear supply circular, newspapers should move from the end consumer back to the newspaper printer. Business firms that print and sell newspapers ought to invest in building paper recycling plants and collecting old newspapers from the end-user (Salim, 2018). s.

A circular flow of newspapers will ensure that less or no newspapers end up as waste material. However, this requires a high level of collaboration between various players in the newspaper supply chain. The end-users must be willing to release old newspapers back to the printing for recycling to take place. Any breakdown in the relationship between the two will hinder the successful recycling of newspapers. As a consequence, the recycler ought to sensitize the endusers on the importance of newspaper recycling to their relationship, the environment, and sustainable development.

The recycling of newspapers also offers the company a chance to produce and sell various products such as toilet papers, cellulose nanocrystals, and cardboards. Recycling newspapers offer an opportunity to produce any type of products at ago, all of which are in high demand in society. Cellulose NanoCrystals can be produced from old and new newspapers (Campano et al., 2017). The product is in high demand across the world and is used for multiple purposes including biomedical engineering. In essence, the new firm will be able to venture into a variety of markets, creating a sustainable source of income.

The environmentalists and government efforts to scale down waste production and destruction of tree cover can leverage to put up a newspaper recycling plant. In 2014, the UK government launched an Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund to support waste prevention (Riddle, 2020). The fund made funds available in terms of grants to organizations that aim at cutting down waste production. Among the areas that were targeted is the recycling of waste to create a circular economy. As a consequence, there is an opportunity for print media to set up newspaper recycling firms to benefit from grants, reducing the financial burden that a company may have to deal with before establishing the project.

Challenges

The supply of recycling materials

newspapers recycling requires a sustained supply of old newspapers, which may increase or dwindle based on various factors. Not all newspapers that are sold can get back to the printing firm because some are used for other purposes such as lighting fires, archiving, and wrapping products at home (Bajpai, 2017). In respect, there is likely a low return of newspapers to the source that what leaves for the market. For a recycling plant to attain an economy of scale, there should be enough newspapers to recycle. A low supply of material means wasting the capacity of the plant, which may lead to high operation costs and the unsustainability of the project (Ramanathan & Ramanathan, 2020). Maintaining a supply chain is critical to sustainable management, which means that the cycling plant has to put in place necessary measures to ensure that there is a smooth inflow of raw materials. Newspapers firms are a for-profit organization. In this respect, the cost of recycling ought to be lower than the cost of buying new papers for printing to encourage them to invest in recycling. Furthermore, the collection of old newspapers can take a long time as end-users hold on to newspapers for some more days before discarding them. There is no guarantee that a newspaper reader will discard the paper one or two days after purchasing it, which creates possible fluctuations in the number of newspapers that can be collected each day. The period individuals hold on newspapers depends on the relevance of a paper. When a remarkable event or news is captured in newspapers, people tend to hold the papers they buy for a more extended period to archive information.

For a newspaper printing firm that specialized in producing and selling newspapers, running a paper recycling firm will require new specialized skills and management. The business firm will be forced to hire management for recycling plants, which means increased central management responsibilities. To successfully run a recycling paper, a newspaper firm will have to separate the management of the printing section from that of the recycling plant. However, this would not be an issue where the recycling firm is independent of the print media firm.

Cost of collecting old newspapers

The collection of old newspapers for recycling is an issue that the recycling company must deal with to ensure a steady supply of the raw material needed to operate the plant. The end users are spread over a wide area, which makes collecting old newspapers for each a difficult task (Pervaiz & Sain, 2015). End-users have to be prevailed upon to collect used newspapers at a central point, from where they can be collected. Also, the cost of transporting the old newspapers back to the recycling plant is another challenge that must be addressed to guarantee an economically viable business enterprise.

Rivalry

The presence of paper recycling plants in England presents possible competition that the new firm has to deal with. Newspapers recycling is an area that has been already exploited, meaning that different recyclers already complete the target raw material. Business rivalry can lead to a high cost of raw material as the end-users of newspapers may opt to sell the waste to the highest bidder. Consequently, the newspaper recycling plant must come up with a robust strategy to successfully compete with rival firms.

Comment on government policy

The country runs a waste management policy called Waste Prevention Programme for England, which aims at encouraging businesses and households to reduce wastages. The policy requires businesses to embrace sustainable development practices as a way of curbing irresponsible pollution ("The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2014", 2020). Business firms are required to take responsibility for their activities and products. Recycling is encouraged to prevent the generation of waste material. Newspapers recycling will help business firms that trade in print media to meet government policies on responsible production.

Moreover, the government’s environmental policy requires that business firms invest in conservational practices. Paper recycling does not only contribute to the prevention and reduction of waste but also helps to conserve the forest cover by reducing overdependence on trees for pulp. The government is doing all it can to protect forests from unsustainable harvesting of wood and timber. Paper manufacturers heavily rely on the forest for the supply of raw materials. In this respect, the recycling of newspapers means that pressure for ordering new papers for printing will decrease the demand for wood used in the production of papers (Virtanen & Nilsson, 2013). This is in line with the government policy on environmental conservation as well as sustained development.

The recycling of newspapers will also ensure that print media firms have an alternative source of raw materials necessary for printing. Papers are one of the critical raw material in print media that consumes a lot of resources of the company (Rahmasari, 2020). Recycling reduces dependence on suppliers, which improves the newspaper business’ bargaining power. Each business firm's wish is to control sources of raw materials it needs for production. In this respect, recycling offers an opportunity for print media firms to control the supply of papers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, newspaper recycling supports a circular economy in the print media industry. The recycling of newspapers supports sustainable business management by encouraging reducing the amount of waste that comes from print media. The project aligns with government policy on waste management and sustainable development. There is an avalanche of opportunities that newspaper recycling can exploit to thrive which include the availability of old newspapers from the print media firm and other businesses in the sector; availability of recycling technology; and funds to support waste prevention measures in the country. The opportunities are many and compelling, strong enough to support the establishment of a newspaper recycling plant, particularly print media companies. Diversification of sources of papers for recycling is advisable to deal with the possibilities of high competition over the collection of old newspapers.

Reference

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