Why EssentialsMAG Uses Recycled Paper
You may not be aware of this, but the last issue of EssentialsMAG you read has been printed on paper which may have been recycled up to five times.
When it comes to paper communications, recycled paper is the greenest option: it uses less energy and water, produces lower carbon emissions than the manufacturing of non-recycled paper and, at the same time, reduces the amount of waste going to landfill.
We choose to use recycled paper for our magazines because, with advances in technology and processes, recycled paper is now as clean and has the same print performance as non-recycled paper.
For example, did you know?
Recycling paper reduces CO2 emissions by 20% in comparison with incinerating the paper
The process of creating recycled paper uses 31% less energy than the creation of virgin fibre paper
Producing one tonne of recycled paper takes 35,000 fewer litres of water than producing one tonne of virgin fibre paper
Recycling one tonne of paper can also save 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic metres of landfill space and 4,000 kilowatts of energy.
Recycling – a quick history lesson
Recycling paper is not new. We can claim that the start of modern-day recycling can be traced back to 1970, when 23-year-old US student Gary Anderson entered a design competition held by the Container Corporation of America to create a symbol for recycled paper. Recycling was actually happening long before then.
During the mid-1800s the rising popularity of books in the UK meant that the supply of paper, which was then made out of discarded linen rags, could not keep up with demand. By the start of the 1900s, books were being bought at auctions in the UK for the purpose of recycling the fibre content into new paper.
Internationally, about half of all recovered paper comes from converting shavings and unsold periodicals; approximately one third comes from household or post-consumer waste.
Recycling isn’t always about saving trees either. Relating tonnes of paper recycled to the number of trees not cut is meaningless since tree sizes vary tremendously. Trees raised specifically for pulp production account for about 16% of global pulp production and most pulp mill operators practice reforestation to ensure a continuing supply of trees – it’s not in their interests to run out of their main ingredient!
We are very conscious of our carbon footprint and our responsibility to the communities we serve. Which is why over the years your EssentialsMAG has gone from being printed on 130gsm (grams per square metre) to 115gsm to 85gsm paper, and we’re currently looking to see if we can go down to 65gsm without compromising the quality.
If you’d like to know more about how paper is recycled and reused, then take a look at lovepaper.org. You’ll find lots of positive stories about paper, print and paper packaging, from its environmental credentials to its ability to improve mental wellbeing, learning and enhance creativity.
