Dispelling Myths: Recycled vs. Virgin Fiber

Presented by: New Leaf Paper
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Dispelling Myths: Recycled vs Virgin Paper Susan Kinsella Executive Director, Conservatree for New Leaf Paper March 9, 2010

Agenda
Introductions
Conservatree background
Dispelling myths: recycled vs. virgin
Q&A
Reminder: next webinar on March 16 th
Understanding the Eco Paper Universe
Presented by Neva Murtha, Canopy

Conservatree Paper Company 1976-1997
ID’d papers being made with recycled content, when there was no differentiation between “recycled” and “virgin”
Established specialty distributorship, based in San Francisco – the only national source through the late 1980s for commercial grades and quantities of recycled papers
Partnered with paper mills, introduced the first recycled version of almost every printing/writing grade of paper
1988 - Introduced first recycled content copy paper
1990-1993 – At center of debates about recycled content standards, inclusion of postconsumer, resulted in White House Executive Order for federal agency use of recycled paper
1994 – Closed down sales division, continued education, including new environmental attributes – chlorine free, tree free, sustainable forestry
1997 – Closed down company

Conservatree – ENGO 1998 - current
Nonprofit organization
Website listings of virtually all environmental papers available in U.S. and Canada
2001 – Deinking capacity study, with EDF
2002 – Chaired Environmental Paper Summit, initiated Environmental Paper Network (environmentalpaper.org)
2002 – Advised FSC-Int’l on combining recycled standards with forestry certification
2000-2004 – Listening Studies on questions about recycled, tree free and sustainable wood fiber papers
2003-2007 – Single Stream Recycling Best Practices, manual and summit focused on need for processing quality
2007-2008 - PIRA Int’l report on chain-of-custody paper markets
2009-current – Updating all website listings, will update deinking capacity study

Presentation Parameters
Printing and Writing papers – not newsprint, corrugated cartons, paperboard, or tissue (each has a different story)
Kraft pulping – not Groundwood/Mechanical
High grade deinking – not recycling as in packaging mills

Pulping
Groundwood/Mechanical – grind up tree, use nearly 100% for papermaking Adv – resource efficient, less expensive Disadv – paper deteriorates rapidly Examples – newspaper, inexpensive paperback books, phone books, coated paper for magazines/catalogs
Kraft/Chemical – chemically cook tree to break out fibers Adv – strong, archival quality paper Disadv – most resource-intensive of all papermaking, only half of tree available for paper (balance is used for energy co-gen) Examples – copy paper, office papers, printing papers, high quality books, high-end coated paper used for advertising

Environmental Benefits of Recycled Paper
Resource benefits – PaperCalculator.org State of the Paper Industry Report - Environmental Paper Network
1 ton kraft virgin pulp requires up to 4.4 tons of fresh trees (23% material efficiency rate) 1 ton of kraft deinked pulp requires 1.4 tons recovered paper (71% material efficiency rate)
Significant reductions in use of water, energy, bleach and chemicals Significant reductions in GHGs, pollution
Keeps paper out of landfills, prevents methane production (25x more potent than CO2; even when landfill methane is captured for energy use, a large percentage is still released into the atmosphere.)

Myths? Forests and Trees
“ Trees are renewable.”
“ Trees are cut for lumber, not paper.”
“ More trees are planted than are cut.”
“ Trees grow back.”
“ There’s plenty of forest cover.”
“ Using a paper with certified forest fiber is the same as using recycled paper.”

Recycled Paper
High quality
Increasingly combined with additional environmental attributes like chlorine free, tree free, and certified sustainably harvested fiber
Widely available in virtually all grades
Some grades cost more, but others are very cost-competitive

Recycling Questions
Isn’t recycling bad because it produces shorter fibers?
Don’t you need some virgin fiber in all paper?
What about all the transportation to truck recovered materials around?
There’s not enough recovered materials – aren’t we already getting all we can (or we’re shipping it all overseas)?
What’s the point of “postconsumer fiber”? (Alternatively, isn’t that the “best” fiber?”)
Doesn’t it make more sense to put recycled content into tissue and packaging, not printing/writing paper?

Recycled Content by Grade Grade Segment of 2005 U.S. Production Average Recycled Content Tissue 8% 45% Newsprint 9% (incl. Canada) 33% Containerboard 23% 24% Printing/Writing 27% 6% Boxboard 30% 37%

What’s A Paper Buyer To Do?
Follow the Environmental Paper Network’s Common Vision: 1. Minimize paper consumption 2. Maximize recycled content – greatest environmental benefits are in printing/writing papers, need to encourage more capacity 3. Source fiber responsibly 4. Encourage cleaner production practices
Use credible 3 rd -party certifications when available – e.g. Green Seal, EcoLogo, CFPA, FSC – but first understand what they do and do not guarantee

Importing Paper
Be aware that manufacturers in other countries may not use common terms in the same way – determine what they mean by terms such as:
“ Recycled”
“ Treefree”
“ Woodfree”
“ Chlorine free”
“ Renewable”

Future World Paper Markets . . .
. . . Require Drastically Reduced Industrial Footprints
Recycled Content is Key - the fastest way to dramatically reduce resource demand for high quality papers and reduce the paper production footprint

Q&A
CONTACT INFORMATION
Susan Kinsella
Executive Director, Conservatree
PO Box 29304
San Francisco, CA 94129
415-883-6264
[email_address]

Dispelling Myths: Recycled vs. Virgin Fiber

by New Leaf Paper on Mar 10, 2010

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