U.S. publishers group promoting magazine recycling

The Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) is sponsoring a couple of public service ads that ask magazine readers to recycle. "Be a Hero. Recycle Your Magazines," says one and "Turn Over a New Leaf. Recycle Your Magazines!" The ads were created by Jennifer Kraemer-Smith, art director for Time for Kids.

Nina Link, president of the MPA, said the ads are a "friendly reminder that every one of us is a citizen of this world, and we each have a responsibility to do what we can to conserve and recycle our resources."

One of the difficulties with recycling magazines is the variation in how glossy magazine paper is handled in different jurisdictions across North America. The MPA says that, while two-thirds of U.S. household recycling accepts magazines, only about 20% are put in the blue box (or local equivalent). As an indication of the curious and particular difficulties of magazine recycling, MPA had to come up with two logos: one, the traditional three chasing arrows symbol for recycling and the words Please Recycle This Magazine; the second adds a second message – Please Remove Samples or Inserts Before Recycling, acknowleging the proliferation of non-paper inserts in magazines (e.g., CD disks, product samples, plastics).