MIDDLESBORO — The Middlesboro Daily News (MDN) and the Bell County 109 Solid Waste Board have joined forces to recycle newsprint. MDN began recycling its own excess newsprint in a private bin in October of last year; but now the public has a chance to do their part to help the environment. A public recycling receptacle for newsprint is now located in the MDN parking lot, behind Food City in Middlesboro, next to the trash bins.

“Basically, the message I want to get across...is to initiate newspaper recycling,” said Kirby Smith, Chairman of the 109 Board. “We started working together to start the Daily News about four months ago recycling their paper.” The MDN has been recycling 8-10 tons of paper per month since the program began.

And the savings speak for themselves. Smith said that for every ton of paper recycled, 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and 60 percent of the energy is saved to produce that same amount of paper.

And now, instead of dumping a newspaper after its read, the public can recycle it too.

“Hopefully we’ll get people involved, at least starting to recycle newspaper,” said Smith. He noted that a 4-foot stack of newspaper can produce as much paper pulp as a 40 foot pine tree.

“We’re really excited to be working with the 109 Board on this project,” said Brandy Calvert, Managing Editor of the Daily News. “It reduces tons of waste that would otherwise be filling up our land fills... It’s great that the community can now participate as well.”

Smith said that the paper is transported to Knoxville, Tenn., to a recycling center. He said that while they would like to expand the program all over the area, the economy is slowing their progress.

“We’re going to have to get a rebound before we can expand,” said Smith. “Our goal is to expand.”

Stephen Woodward is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. He may be contacted at swoodward@middlesborodailynews.com.