Green Myths

Green Myths

Here we hope to dispel some common misconceptions about Green printing and paper. Paper has been around for almost 2000 years, and during this time it has undoubtedly established itself as the most effective and versatile means of communication. As responsible suppliers we feel we have an obligation to let you know both sides of the story. A recently launched website twosides.info has further information and evidence proving that print still has a place in an environmentally and economically restricted marketing mix.

Paper

When attempting to assess the overall environmental impact of paper - virgin or recycled – you must consider that this one product takes many forms and the processes to produce it differ.

At the bottom of the page is a simplified guide to what’s involved in making a ‘standard’ office paper - between the recycled and virgin varieties. The table which offers a summarised comparison of the processes and their impact.

"Recycled paper is more damaging for the environment than non-chlorine bleached fibre from sustainable forests. "

As a general rule, using recycled paper is the best environmental option. Recycling paper maximises the use of the fibres, increasing the amount of paper produced and used per square foot of forest. Its production typically uses less energy and fewer chemicals. Having said that, some virgin fibre will always be needed, as paper can only go through the recycling process a finite number of times (roughly six to eight , depending on its use) before its fibres are broken up too much to hold together. But it doesn’t have to be an ‘either/or’. Many papers now contain a proportion of recycled content.

But these reasons alone do not make recycled paper less harmful to the environment – whole forests are managed to supply the raw materials for virgin paper. The real issue is over ‘sustainable forests’ – this is a meaningless term. You can only be sure paper is from a sustainably managed source if it is certified by the FSC. Read more

"Recycled paper is more expensive than virgin paper"

Not necessarily. The first recycled papers were more expensive, but recycled paper is much more widely available now.

"Recycled papers are usually poor quality "

Many people continue to associate recycled paper with a ‘worn’, poor quality look. While it’s true that some art-quality and highly glossy publishing still demand virgin paper, it is quite possible to produce a high-quality magazine using only ‘post consumer’ recycled paper. The quality of recycled paper has improved massively in the last 20 years due to advances in papermaking technology, improved sorting and increased recycling rates. It is now often impossible to tell the difference between quality recycled and virgin paper

Below is a table which offers a summarised comparison of the processes and their impact.

RECYCLED PAPER	PAPER
RAW MATERIAL Waste paper	RAW MATERIAL Virgin wood
Impacts: Collection of waste (transport)	Impacts: Forestry and harvesting. These include road building, and energy for cutting timber and stripping branches. Unless the forest is managed sustainably, these can involve reduction of biodiversity (especially with plantations), the effects of planting non-native trees (eg, use of agrochemicals, soil depletion), lack of access for local people, wildlife habitat destruction and damage to rivers. Many of these are exacerbated where ‘clearcutting’ is practised.
PULP PROCESSING	PULP PROCESSING
Summary of process: Repulping (put simply, mincing in a giant food-processor - reprocessed pulp does not require the extended cooking and bleaching needed for producing virgin pulp), washing to separate ink particles from fibre, screening and centrifuging to remove staples, adhesives, bindings, etc.), removal of ink particles by floating them off with soap and air bubbles, bleaching to brighten, drying for transport to paper mill. Impacts: Chemicals for washing and bleaching, plus process additives (including the manufacture and the production of effluents/emissions in use). Energy use. Water use. Solid wastes	Summary of process: Debarking and chipping, digesting - pulping and extended cooking (to de-lignify, which is what prevents the paper yellowing the way newsprint does), washing, bleaching, drying for transport to paper mill. Impacts: Chemicals for cooking, de-lignifying, bleaching, plus process additives (including their manufacture and the production of effluents/emissions in use). Energy use. Water use. Solid wastes
Note: Modern bleaching methods do not use elemental chlorine, which was formerly standard, and one of paper’s most serious environmental impacts.
PAPER MAKING (both recycled and virgin)
Summary of process: The paper making process is the same for both virgin and recovered pulps. Essentially, it involves mixing the pulped wood (or recycled paper) with 97% water and adding fillers to improve opacity. Then the mix is poured on to a very long vibrating mesh conveyor to spread into a thin film. At the end of the conveyor, the web of paper transfers to a set of steam heated rollers for further drying, when the surface is also ‘sized’ to seal it. It is then coated (if appropriate) and ‘calendered’ - polished by heated steel rollers much like a giant, multi-rollered mangle. Matt paper is lightly polished, gloss paper more so. Once drying is complete, the paper is reeled off on to huge jumbo reels, and cut to finished size.

Impacts: Use of large quantities of freshwater (though this can be mitigated by reuse). Extraction and processing of china clay, calcium carbonate, titanium, starch and other materials used for fillers, ‘sizing’ and coating. Uncoated papers obviously have much lower impacts. Effluents: These are rapidly diminishing - virtually to zero in the better mills, thanks to improved waste treatment on site. Emissions: from energy generation (eg, carbon, sulphur and nitrous oxides) - although plants investing in biomass or other CHP, and, especially, renewables, produce far fewer; and from the process itself (such as dust, halons, suspended solids and phosphorous). Solid wastes include everything from packaging for chemicals to dried sludge - although this can be used for everything from soil conditioner to cat litter (thanks to its highly absorbent qualities)!
END OF LIFE IMPACTS	END OF LIFE IMPACTS
Paper which is recycled never really ‘dies’ - it goes around again (the fibres that become too short through constant recycling form part of the sludge that is one of the process wastes).	If not recycled, paper either goes to landfill - where its leachate may seep into groundwater, and its decomposition produce methane (a potent greenhouse gas) - or it is incinerated (producing carbon emissions).
TRANSPORT	TRANSPORT
Throughout the process - from felling the trees to dumping waste paper in landfill or returning it to the recycling plant - there are, of course, all the impacts associated with transport. Some of this is international; all but 8% of the UK ’s pulp supply is imported - mostly from Scandinavia or the USA

Source: Green Futures

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