The tonnage recycled through the Nationwide Paper Drive saved more than 60,000 gallons of water, more than 25,700 cubic yards of landfill space, 17,164 barrels of oil, and 35,187,676 kilowatt-hours of energy (enough to power more than 4000 average American homes for one year).

"This year, rather than focusing our efforts on a single day, we decided to celebrate Earth Day for an entire month," said Sylvain Longval, vice president of recycling, North America, for AbitibiBowater. "We wanted to work with Paper Retriever partners across the country on a program that would really make an impact. We're very excited about the amount of paper our partners were able to recycle, but we're more than thrilled that those efforts have resulted in a nearly USD 400,000 payout to nonprofit partners of the Paper Retriever program."

Paper Retriever is a simple recycling program that directly benefits the community and the environment. Schools, churches, and other nonprofit organizations in cities across the country place distinctive green- and-yellow Paper Retriever bins in highly visible areas outside their organizations where members of the community and the organization can donate their recyclable paper. The nonprofit organizations are then paid based on the tonnage that their bin collects; those funds can be used for textbooks, playground repair, even school field trips or other programs. There are more than 18,000 Paper Retriever locations and more than 26,000 Paper Retriever bins hosted in 23 major metropolitan areas across the United States. In 2009, materials recycled through Paper Retriever generated more than USD 3.8 million for more than 15,000 nonprofit organizations. Paper Retriever is a subsidiary program of AbitibiBowater. For more information, visit www.paperretriever.com or www.facebook.com/paperretriever.