A radioactive/hazardous waste incinerator is planned to be built directly upwind of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and our National Treasures, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Yellowstone National Park is an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site so the comments of the nation and world should be heard in this very important decision.

British Nuclear Fuels would build the incinerator and burn 24 hours a day for 13-30 years. They are mentioned in this month's Harpers Magazine Index for dumping 397 pounds of plutonium into the Irish Sea since 1959. Please find out all you can about BNFL and their past history in Europe, and the current problems they are having with Greenpeace.

The DOE recently admitted to destroying 700 boxes the Center for Disease Control had said they wanted for their HEALTH STUDY ON RADIATION EMISSIONS FROM INEEL! This is the second batch they have destroyed that the CDC wanted for their reconstructive dose health study.

Please demand your democratic right in the decisions that will effect our environment, health, and the lives of future generations. Contact Mike Finley, Bruce Babbit, the media, Gov. Kempthorne of Idaho, Idaho DEQ, your own governor and elected officials, your mom and dad, your kids, and your friends. Thank you for your interest. For more information, call Harvest Health Food Store (307) 733-5418. For more information, contact us at: Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, Jackson Hole,

The above website listsplaces where you can get more information. The Snake River Alliance is working on opposing this project, as well as the Environmental Defense Institute and the Idaho Conservation League.

Recycled paper has suffered a number of setbacks in the last few years that recently peaked with the closure of a state of the art recycling and deinking facility which made the Unity and Incentive 100 grades of paper.

If we want to save old growth timber and rain forests, using high post-consumer recycled paper is the simplest step we can take. Tim Keating of Rainforest Relief contends that, "the only way to ultimately keep the loggers out of the old growth is to reduce the demand for fiber. The single greatest (and easiest) way to do this is to increase wastepaper utilization."

DEMAND IS THE NEEDED ANSWER

Yes, recycling is market driven. Recyclers have been hit by falling prices and weak demand for recycled paper. A number of recycled paper mills have closed.

Keating notes that "The trend exemplified by" the elimination of Unity and slipping of the use of recycled paper is partially the fault of the environmental community "that has allowed itself to back away from the pushing of the use of recycled paper, preferring to continually move on." The use of wastepaper is slipping back "towards the old numbers" before the peak of recycled waste use of recent years. Hammermill Vice President Rick Smith said of the Unity elimination, "the market never met price nor volume expectations." The press release said, "there just wasn't the demand" for Unity paper.

Many environmentally-oriented people refuse to pay the extra that real recycled paper costs over virgin pulp paper. They may use recycled stationery but their copy paper is virgin bought from a store owned by a huge company (Boise Cascade, Staples, Office Depot, etc.) - which in turn supports multi-national timber companies and chlorine-gas bleaching. They are not alone. It can be a difficult decision, but we must push for a more environmentally benign walk to keep up with the talk. If good recycled paper is going to stay, we must buy it.

The paper market is a tough market where the Big Boys have created a feeding frenzy for low cost consumption. Just a few companies control the market, and it is standard procedure to coerce mills into cheaper paper which means cheap fiber (trees) and low cost processing (chlorine). One converting mill dropped some environmentally benign papers that did not sell well to streamline economically so they could compete against those Big Boys. Actual consumer practices dictate what the mills and converters and resellers do most of the time.

MILL CLOSURES

Four recycling mills out of seven that have been built since 1994 have shut down. A dozen mills are operating at partial capacity. Add to this International Paper's recent elimination of production of Hammermill Unity and Springhill Incentive 100 and mothballing of the Pennsylvania recycling/deinking facility.

It is a big blow to those who support recycling as the Unity and Incentive 100 (Unity for simplicity) papers are 100% deinked fiber and contain at least 50% post-consumer material. Another advantage Unity brought to the consumer was that it was not bleached and processed without any chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Over a million trees a year will fall to replace Unity, a paper produced at a high volume. Many users will replace it with bleached paper that is 70-80% dead trees, as the environmental alternatives appear too costly.

It is a huge loss for both the recycling and toxic issues campaigns, not to mention the cutting of timber. Unity failed due to a lack of demand for the most part - by consumers failing to buy. The single greatest offset of the use of virgin wood fiber (and thus the cutting of trees) is the use of waste paper.

TCF / PCF - WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN?

The chlorine issue is important, but it has spawned a new problem; that the increasingly popular TCF papers cannot be made from recycled material but must come from virgin fiber sources which usually means dead trees.

Totally chlorine free (TCF) and process chlorine free (PCF) are the latest in confusing buzzwords. Many people who use them don't know exactly what they mean or just what the ramifications are. (Remember, ECF - elementally chlorine free - is still chlorine)

TCF stands to be simply another environmental headache cloaked in green IF we don't combine it with the use of post-consumer recycled waste paper. Environmental solutions are holistic, not simplistic. It is a step backwards to abandon recycling and go back to cutting trees for paper just so we can have TCF. That appears to be what is happening and will continue to happen. Alternative intentional fibers are just too expensive to step into the real world of commodity paper. Waste paper and agricultural waste are less costly.

The fiber source for paper which offers the least chemical intensive production scenario is falling to the wayside due to other popular movements. I speak of turning garbage into paper - post-consumer waste recycled. Environmentally sound PCF recycled papers are an important part of the chlorine solution. Paper recycling will collapse if we all used TCF paper made from dead trees or intentional fiber crops. Process chlorine free is the alternative that we promote.

With all the work folks have been doing around the country on the chlorine issue, the loss of Unity is a big blow - the shutdown of a chlorine free operation. A real step backwards.

The Environmental Protection Agency is establishing new baseline bleaching technologies affecting pulp and paper mills in the U.S. The EPA supports the substituting chlorine dioxide for chlorine gas - still a chlorine derivative.

We must hold the pulp and paper industry accountable for continuing to poison ecosystems and our food chain with chlorinated organic compounds. The consumer marketplace holds much of the answer. ALL paper should be processed without chlorine, but it is a mistake to give up on PCF recycled paper simply because it is not TCF. Recycling mills are the most likely to offer alternatives to chlorine. Unity was produced in a chlorine free process. In the early '90's, a group of people opened a mothballed mill to run as a chlorine free recycled mill. It failed due to a lack of support - by consumers failing to buy it.

IT WILL TAKE ALL OF US, TOGETHER

Fifty million tons of paper still end up in the landfills each year. The whole enchilada is about saving threatened resources. Per capita consumption of paper in this country doubled from about 1970 to 1990. Paper is the largest single use of trees that are harvested worldwide, and the use is growing. This means we have no choice but to reduce consumption as a first step.

If we want to save old growth and rain forests, high post-consumer recycled paper is a simple step. Tim Keating (Rainforest Relief) sums it up, "the only way to ultimately keep the loggers out of the old growth is to reduce the demand for fiber." Phil Knight of the Native Forest Network - Yellowstone adds, "This is definitely one place where the direct action of individuals - to purchase or not to purchase post-consumer recycled paper - does have an impact."

Using recycled paper should not be just another passing fad. If we want recycling to be truly successful, we must buy and use the best recycled paper we can!

AND HEERREE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO

Urge conservation groups to: a) promote reduction of consumption, and b) support and promote the use of recycled paper as a continuing theme.

As an individual: a) buy and use recycled paper processed without chlorine, and b) talk to your employer about beginning to use some recycled paper in your workplace.

Thanks for your effort!

For more information on this issue, contact Treecycle.

A recent news article in USA Today points out that one problematic culprit in many recycling mill's decline has been what are called "stickies" and the unexpected technical difficulties in removing self-sticking materials from office waste paper. Stickies are little items we all use like self adhesive postage stamps, labels, post-it notes and tape.

When stickies are recycled along with office paper and junk mail, they gum up machines. And worse, stickies weaken the paper, causing tears in the giant manufactured rolls. Recycled paper has suffered a number of setbacks in the last few years including a number of mill closures that recently peaked with the closure of a state of the art recycling and deinking facility in Pennsylvania. Any steps that can be taken to help the recycling solution is something that consumers should take seriously.

Water activated adhesives are not a serious problem, so we all should use stamps and envelopes you have to lick or moisten and use as few self-sticking labels and post-it notes as possible. At the other end, remove as many labels, tapes, post-its, etc., as possible from your recyclables.

The Wilderness system may be failing to protect biological diversity in part because of our approach to Wilderness designation. Most areas in the system are higher elevations, chosen for scenic and recreational attributes, not biological value. Diverse habitat types are poorly represented, and important concepts like biological linkage corridors are neglected. The results can be seen in alarming declines in water quality and fisheries, habitat fragmentation, endangered species listings, and etc.

NREPA represents a scientifically based approach to this problem, one which incorporates new concepts from conservation biology and challenges our traditional view of "political reality." NREPA also recognizes the importance of wildlands to our economy, and it creates new jobs in wildland restoration.

The Bill, H.R. 488 protects large blocks of federal roadless land as Wilderness, over 16 million acres region-wide, and links these blocks with biological connecting corridors. (In the corridors, development is limited but not prohibited.) NREPA also protects 1500 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, and directs two National Park and Preserve studies. It protects Native American cultural resources and access to traditional sites, and sets up a scientific panel to monitor our progress at ecosystem protection.

NREPA is supported by Treecycle. It was first introduced in Congress in September, 1992. We encourage you to contact your congressional delegation and ask them to sign on and support this important step in conservation. (Website to find out who your representative is: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ Punch in your zip code and your representatives name will appear.) For more information, contact the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.