April 2012 -  River Valley participated in Earth Day this year by attending events at Sterling Jewelers, The University of Akron, the Akron Zoo and the Green Fair at Unitarian Universalist Church in Akron.  Each event was well attended and we enjoyed talking to everyone about what we do best….Recycling!   A big thank you to Sterling, The University of Akron, the Akron Zoo and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Akron for asking us to be a part of your Earth Day celebrations and to everyone who stopped by the River Valley booth at each of these events!  Remember to keep promoting recycling awareness wherever you go because everyday is Earth Day! 

April 2012 – Last month River Valley and Keep Akron Beautiful’s celebration of Arbor Day was a huge success!  The teachers and students of the Akron City Schools received more than 4,200 trees from River Valley and KAB ….amazing!   Thank you for making this Arbor Day a great celebration!

We received tons of thank you letters from the students!  These will be posted shortly, so check back and look for the thank you letter you sent!

 May 2012 – So you have started a recycling program with River Valley? What Now?!? How to keep your program running smoothly and maximizing your collection/earning potential is on everyone’s mind. Most recycling programs are not self-maintaining and need your help! This is an education for your community, so be creative and promote your program to compliment your needs.

May 2012 Program Tip ~ Select a Program Manager. This person will take time to promote the recycling program through your school, church or business community. Promotion ideas for your program would include: monthly newsletter, flyers placed throughout your community, sending a mailer, a monthly paper drive and anything else you can think of to keep your program fresh for your community! Remember: Promotion is education and education is participation!

Contact us if you have any questions about making your program a success!

River Valley Paper (RVP) and Keep Akron Beautiful (KAB) will be educating Akron’s students on why trees are so important to the environment, how paper is made and why recycling helps to save our resources! Along with this information, students will also learn about Earth Day and Arbor Day. Each student will also be given a Colorado blue spruce sapling from RVP or a dogwood sapling from KA, some soil, and instructions on how to plant the sapling in a paperboard box (milk carton). The students will be encouraged to take their saplings home and plant them along with the milk carton in their backyard.

“Trees are extremely important to our environment. Trees provide us with the fundamentals of life: food and oxygen. The amount of trees in our forests have increased by over 40% in the past 100 years, due to managed timberlands. We now harvest and replenish the trees, used in production, by replanting 3-5 for every 1 that is felled. Our recycling rates have also increased by 81% in the past twenty years. Planting trees is an important component of recycling! Use More Paper, Waste Less. Recycle Wisely!” ~John Sharp, Owner, River Valley Paper Company

River Valley Paper Company is a locally owned and operated company located in Akron, Ohio. For additional information, visit www.rivervalleypaper.com. If you have any questions or would like to know about the services we provide, please contact us at 330-535-1001.

Keep Akron Beautiful is a 501(c) (3) agency celebrating 31 years of serving the citizens of Akron by improving Akron’s quality of life through beautification and responsible environmental management. For additional program information, visit www.keepakronbeautiful.org. If you have any questions or would like to know more about us, please contact us at 330-375-2116

Join us at the Akron Zoo, located at 500 Edgewood Avenue Akron, OH 44307 between the hours of 11am and 4pm and celebrate the wonders of our planet!

River Valley’s North division was opened in mid-August in Kalamazoo, MI.  This facility will help to service our folding carton manufacturers as well as supply our boxboard and tissue mill contacts with recovered fiber.

River Valley’s South division, Portside Paper, has opened this month in Jacksonville, FL.  This facility will be equipped with a 2-ram auto-tie baler, 130” guillotine cutter for roll stock and is rail served.  Located conveniently at the Jaxport, Portside Paper will look to increase our joblot / secondary roll business in the Southeast.   We will also process high-grade pulp substitutes such as tissue and toweling and off-spec pulp.