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sustainabletimes
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We can all agree that recycling paper
is good practice – recycling one
tonne of paper saves about three
cubic metres of landfill space. But
what about buying recycled paper?
Is that also a good thing and, by
inference, better than buying virgin
paper grades? Given that the paper
stream needs input of new fibre,
wouldn’t it be better to recycle
waste paper into newspapers,
packaging etc. rather than high
quality office paper?
John Sanderson, Director of Global
Market Support, Environmental Affairs
at UPM, says that the case for recycling
paper cannot be questioned and there’s
certainly no environmental or ethical
argument why we wouldn’t aim to
recover and recycle as much waste paper
as possible, rather than burying such a
valuable resource in landfill.
However, he points out that the
question of where recycled fibre is best
used is less clear-cut, and that in practice
it often ends up in paper and board
products that don’t deliver the optimum
environmental benefit.
“We need to think less about pushing
recycled fibre into the mix regardless of
the grade and think instead about how
best to ensure a sustainable balance of
Making the grade
recycled and virgin fibre across the whole
paper spectrum,” he said. “The question
is not really whether one fibre has less
environmental impact than another, but
how best to use that available basket
of recycled and virgin fibre to give the
lowest overall environmental impact for
paper products as a whole,” he said.
“If you were to ask me which was
the most environmentally appropriate
fibre for newsprint, then I’d say that
would be recycled fibre, because it is
the most appropriate quality for the
product and would replace the need to
use mechanical fibre which has a high
energy demand. But if you were to ask
me the same question about fine papers,
then I’d say that virgin fibre would be the
most appropriate, because it places that
essential input of virgin fibre as high as
possible in the paper quality spectrum
and still leaves it available to be recycled
after use into other less demanding
grades.
“The result of placing recycled fibre
in the wrong grades of paper will, at
best, mean that fibre is not available for
more appropriate grades and, at worst, it
will actually increase the environmental
footprint of paper overall,” he said.
David Jones, marketing director of
Premier Paper Group, makes the same
point: “Paper fibre can only be recycled
five or six times before the fibres become
unsuitable for paper making. There is a
view that the best use of recycled paper
fibre is in cartons, boards and newsprint
where the technical demands are more
suited to recycled content than those for
producing ‘fine’ papers destined for office
use,” he explained.
“The recycling rate for paper in the
EU is 72% and the fibre recovered from
this makes up 56% of the fibre mix
used for paper manufacture in the EU.
As certain papers, such as tissue, are
impossible to recycle and therefore lost
from the paper cycle, it’s estimated that
at best we will only ever be able to push
the recovery level to 80%. As society’s
use of tissue increases and its use of
graphic paper levels off or declines,
the reality is likely be a slightly lower
recovery rate.
“For the sake of argument, let’s say
that the optimum amount of recycled
fibre we have available will supply 60%
of the fibre we need. This means that to
be sustainable, even in environmental
terms, we will always require at least
40% virgin fibre in our paper mix. In
essence, recycled fibre is not sustainable
without virgin fibre.”
He added: “The environmental
argument of using recycled over virgin
fibre products is very complex as many
mills, integrated mills in particular, offer
many other environmental benefits.”
A clear message
For most private and public sector
organisations, these arguments are
secondary to what recycled paper
says about the user’s environmental
commitment, which is why demand for
recycled paper has remained stable.
“In round figures we estimate the
UK office papers market to be 600,000
tonnes,” explained Jones. “Some 72,000
tonnes (12%) of this are recycled
papers. Our analysis suggests that office
papers consumption dropped by about
1% in 2011, yet demand for recycled
Choosing recycled paper is often the first thing a business
does to make its workplace greener. But is recycled paper
really the most sustainable option or would it make more
sense to use recycled fibre in lower grade paper and board
products?
Sustainable Times
asks the experts
John Sanderson,
Director of Global
Market Support,
Environmental Affairs
at UPM
continued...
Paper fibre can
only be recycled
five or six times
before the
fibres become
unsuitable for
paper making.
“