I would like to take this opportunity to commend and congratulate The Northern Star for its use of recycled paper. Those of you who patronized the Star last year may remember a letter to the editor on Nov. 11, 1991 from the Student Environmental Action Coalition members asking about the recycled paper content of the Star. In Tuesday’s edition, a story ran on page five stating that The Northern Star is indeed printed on recycled paper. The other question in the letter asked about the percentage of recycled paper used. After a little research, I found that the Star’sprinting company, Castle Communications, gets its paper from the FSC Paper Company. According to Larry Domark Jr., a sales assistant at FSC, the paper ultimately used for The Northern Star is 100 percent recycled paper and usually between 90 percent and 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. Many paper companies have been manufacturing recycled paper for a long time. However, it usually came from mill overruns and otherwise unusable paper that had already been manufactured by the company. It was simply cost-efficient to recycle the on-site material into marketable paper. Now it is fashionable to let the public know that such paper is recycled, but consumers don’t save a lot of virgin timber by buying this type of recycled paper. Recycled paper with post-consumer content saves trees because less wood pulp is needed to make it. It was very encouraging to learn that The Northern Star is printed on recycled paper with such a high post-consumer content. I would also like to thank the Star for continuing to print “recycle this newspaper” type ads as S.E.A.C. suggested last fall. Editor’s Notes that answer questions asked about the Star in letters to the editor are much appreciated as well. Speaking of which, I would like to ask, what type of ink is used to print The Northern Star? Soy-based inks are the most environmentally responsible. If the Star is not printed with a soy-based ink, I would like to request that the switch be made. Until then, keep up the good work and don’t ever stop trying to improve the already environmentally responsible production of this paper.

Leo Kurylo

Senior

S.E.A.C. President