this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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How does composting paper make more sense than recycling? From what I can tell we have pretty well established paper recycling mechanisms, at least here in Germany.
Edit: typo.
In most countries, recycling paper only made financial sense if they shipped it to poor countries or used prison labor so it could be inexpensively sorted thru. Traditionally it was China, but they stopped accepting it. And letting microorganisms do what they do consumes less resources like electricity and less industrial chemicals.
In Germany the recycling is sorted at the household level, rather than the mixed recycling that is practiced in other countries. The paper, plastic, glass, and compost all get their own bins and/or bag color.
When recycling first started where I live, we had multiple bins. Paper, and i want to say metal/glass and plastic. Plus garbage and yard waste. But I'm refering to the fact that paper by itself faces additional sorting prior to recycling.
I would guess that it's because recycling requires energy input, while compost doesn't require hardly any energy.
I am pretty sure recycling does not require more energy than using fresh trees. You can even use the waste pulp to produce biogas.
recycled paper is lower quality, so you still have to add fresh paper pulp to it
Sure. It's not a closed cycle. But if you need to cut down less trees, that is a win for me.