(a) Systems designed to recover high grades of office paper at the source of generation, i.e., the desk, are the desktop system, the two-wastebasket system, and the office centralized container system.
(b) With the desk-top system, recyclable paper is placed by the generator in a container on his desk, while other waste is placed in a wastebasket. With the two-wastebasket system, recyclable paper is placed by the generator in one desk-side wastebasket, and all other waste is placed in another. In the centralized container system, large containers for the collection of recyclables are placed in centralized locations within the office areas of the building. Nonrecyclable waste is placed in desk-side wastebaskets.
(c) The recommended system is the desk-top system because it is designed to maximize recovery of high value material in an economically feasible manner. While the two-wastebasket system and centralized container system have been implemented with success in isolated instances, data indicate that, on the whole, these systems have experienced high levels of contamination, low levels of participation, and low revenues. The desk-top system has been designed to minimize these problems.
(d) The precise method of separation and collection used to implement the desk-top system will depend upon such things as the physical layout of the individual facility, the ease of collection, and the projected cost effectiveness of using various methods. The recommended desk-top system is carried out in the following manner:
(1) Workers are to deposit high-grade paper into a desk-top tray or other small desk-top holder to be supplied by the agency. This holder should be designed in such a way as to prevent it holding contaminants, such as food or beverage containers.
(2) At the office worker's convenience or when the tray is filled, the worker carries the paper to a conveniently located bulk container within the office area. This large container should be located in an area the worker frequents in the normal course of business.
(3) In locations where computer cards and printouts are to be collected separately, the receptacle for these wastes should be near the computer terminal or in some other logical, centrally located place.
(4) Collection of the high-grade paper from the bulk containers in the office area should be performed by the janitorial or general maintenance service.
The number of locations and the frequency of collection of these containers will be determined by office size and maintenance staff capacity.
(e) Mixed paper and some high-grade office papers have also been recovered for recycling by hand-picking in an individual building's trash room or at a centralized facility serving several buildings. With these hand-picking systems, recyclable waste is not separated at the source of generation, but is mixed with other waste in the usual manner and removed to a centralized location where recyclable paper is picked out of the mixed waste by hand. Facilities may choose to use this method of high-grade paper recovery if it is shown by analysis to be economically preferable to source separation.