Recycling may be a relatively new phenomenon in some communities, but it has been a paper industry tradition in Canada for 200 years from the time when paper was made from rags. In 1805, linen and cotton rags were collected in Montreal and Québec City then shipped to Canada's first paper mill in St. Andrew's, Québec to be used in the production of newsprint and wrapping paper.

Today, the Canadian paper industry is committed, whenever economically feasible, to using as much as possible recovered paper. More than 70 mills across Canada require high-quality fibre, free of contaminants, in sufficient quantities to meet their annual production needs.

In 2006, the industry transformed 4.8 million tonnes of old newspapers, magazines, corrugated containers, communication papers, boxboard (cereal/shoe boxes, etc.) and other grades of paper into new newsprint, containerboard, boxboard, communication, kraft and sanitary papers, as well as construction papers and boards.

Some 2.8 million tonnes or 59% of this recovered paper came from Canadian sources; the balance was imported primarily from the United States.

In 2006, the Canadian industry recovered approximately 49% of the paper and paperboard consumed in Canada and transformed it into new paper and paperboard products. The table below shows the industry's increasing use of recovered paper and underscores the commitment of Canadians to recycle their old paper and board.

A successful recycling program is dependent upon securing markets for the recovered paper. The market can be a mill using recovered paper to manufacture recycled-content paper and paperboard or a paper stock dealer and/or wastehauler acting as an intermediary between the municipality and the consuming mill. There are hundreds of dealers across Canada who purchase recovered paper, remove contaminants, and process it for shipment to consuming mills. A list of such dealers can be found in the Yellow Pages under "Recycling" or "Waste Paper".

Generally, recovered paper is carefully separated by grade - old newspapers, office papers, old corrugated containers, etc. - to ensure that the paper's economic value is preserved.

The quality of recovered paper is a critical element in any successful recycling program. The paper must be free of contaminants such as food, plastics, metals and wax. The presence of these contaminants results in higher costs to the recycling mills, municipalities and paper stock dealers.