Choosing The Right Paper

It's simply unsustainable for us to go on taking our paper from trees. Half the world's forests are now gone, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council; 30 million acres more are lost each year, with just 10 billion acres left. We're also losing the services that forests perform for us. "Although it's true that trees can be cut and replanted, standard logging practices often destroy valuable forest ecosystems and replace them with single-species plantations that can't provide the kinds of benefits-from sheltering wildlife to preserving clean watersheds-that forests can," says Liz Borkowski, the WoodWise program manager for Co-op America.

Starting in the 1970s, it was said that the computer would make us a paperless society-a pulp fiction, as it turns out. According to a 1999 Worldwatch Institute report, global paper use doubled since the mid-1970s, with the average American consuming more than 700 pounds per year. About 24 trees are used to make one ton of non-recycled writing paper, estimates Conservatree, a nonprofit organization. While recycled office paper is ever more widely available, with a current 5 percent plus of market share, "our goal is to make a significant portion of all paper from recovered paper-not trees," says Gerard Gleason, associate director of Conservatree. The challenge for consumers, in a marketplace of competing green claims, is to choose the right labels and know where to shop. Read on to find out how.

In November 2002, Staples-the world's largest office-supply retailer-announced a new "environmental paper procurement policy," following a grass-roots campaign led by ForestEthics and Dogwood Alliance. Staples has promised to increase the average amount of post-consumer-waste (PCW) recycled content in the paper it sells to 30 percent, up from the current average of less than 10 percent, and to stop purchasing paper products made of wood from endangered forests. (Some Staples stores already offer Living Tree's Vanguard Plus paper, made of 90 percent PCW and 10 percent agricultural fiber) "Respond in kind or fall behind," is the challenge issued by Todd Paglia of ForestEthics to Office Max, Office Depot and Corporate Express-America's other leading paper retailers.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR ON PAPER LABELS

1. TRULY RECYCLED CONTENT
Best Choices:
The "Post-Consumer-Waste Recycled" or "PCW" label: 100 percent PCW must be derived from pulp made entirely of paper that was used by consumers and then recycled. Although the claim is self-designated by manufacturers, raising the issue of conflict of interest, PCW is "relatively meaningful" when there is a percentage attached, according to Urvashi Rangan, director of the Ecolabels Project at Consumers Union, citing truth-in-labeling laws. In this context, Staples' promise to use 30 percent PCW represents a good first step. Green Seal Certified: Green Seal is a non-profit organization whose seal is awarded only after a rigorous onsite evaluation of a paper plant, with follow-ups thereafter. Printing and writing paper must either contain at least 30 percent post-consumer content or not be chlorine-bleached or de-inked using chlorine or its derivatives (see below). The Green Seal label provides independent third-party verification.

Not-so-good:
Plain "Recycled"
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allows the "recycled" label to be affixed to products made from paper scraps, left over from the papermaking process, "which is not the way the consumer tends to define 'recycled,'" says Erich Degner, owner of the Treecycle Recycled Paper Company. Although paper made from manufacturing refuse is a good second choice, the average consumer "doesn't know enough to distinguish between PCW-recycled content and non-PCW-recycled content," Degner says. Since paper manufacturers traditionally reuse scraps anyway, this is not material that would otherwise go to a landfill. Green groups are pressuring the FTC to require manufacturers to indicate the amount of post-consumer content in a "recycled" product, even if that amount is 0 percent.

Worst Choice:
Paper products derived from virgin, never-been-recycled pulp.

2. HOW THE PAPER WAS WHITENED
Chlorine gas used to bleach paper, when combined with the carbons in wood pulp, creates by-products called chlorinated organic compounds, including highly toxic dioxins.

Best Choice:
"Processed Chlorine Free" or "PCF." This label, administered by the Chlorine Free Product Association, means that no chlorine or chlorine derivatives were used to bleach the pulp. Instead, it was either not bleached at all or whitened with a safer substance, often hydrogen peroxide. PCF paper must also use a minimum of 30 percent PCW pulp.

Not so good:
"Totally Chlorine-Free" or TCF, which can apply to paper made with virgin pulp. "Elemental Chlorine Free" or "ECF," which relies on a chlorine derivative, primarily chlorine dioxide. Although the industry claims that this process yields "no detectable levels" of dioxin, some environmental groups remain concerned, especially since the health effects of other chlorinated organic compounds have not been adequately studied.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Buy it!
Recycled paper tends to cost 3 to 5 percent more than virgin, according to a Conservatree report. "That price differential will disappear when an increase in demand means that recycled paper mills can operate "24/7," says Paglia of ForestEthics. Currently, our recycled-paper infrastructure-including the "de-inking plants" and mills, as well as the paper to be recycled-is larger than consumer demand. Conservatree reports that America has the capacity to add 360,000 tons of de-inked, PCW pulp to the 988,000 tons produced annually. "The market for recycled paper has actually decreased in the last decade," says Gleason, blaming consumer confusion-with unclear labels, people might think they're buying recycled when they're not-and a retrenchment of corporate America's buying habits. That may be changing. ForestEthics, for one, reports that it has "commitments from over 50 large corporations to phase out fiber from endangered forests and to increase recycling," Paglia says, naming Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. At least one sector may be growing: "In 1993, a White House Executive Order required at least 20 percent PCW in all printing and writing paper bought by federal agencies, to increase to 30 percent at the end of 1998 . . . now some of the federal agencies are the most committed customers," Gleason says.

2. Save It.
In addition to recycling paper, try these tips:
•Reuse wrapping paper, greeting cards and postcards; set collection boxes around the house to hold scraps for making notes; use rags instead of paper towels.
•Rather than print and xerox copies, read and edit drafts on computer screen; circulate documents electronically, via email; subscribe to the electronic version of a favorite periodical.
•Make two-sided copies; write and print on both sides of paper.
•Get your office to buy PCF/PCW and recycle. According to the EPA, less than 20 percent of office wastepaper is recycled.

3. Pick Tree-Free
Tree-free papers can be made from kenaf, hemp, bamboo, agricultural leftovers such as recovered cotton and flax, and even old currency.

PAPER SOURCES

New Leaf Paper at www.newleafpaper.com, 888-989-LEAF.
Treecycle Recycled Paper at www.treecycle.com, 406-549-4572.
Also see www.greenseal.org for lists of manufacturers.

Tissue and paper towels:
Seventh Generation at www.seventhgen.com or 800-456-1191

Tree-free Paper:
Crane and Co. Continuum Old Money paper (from U. S. currency).
Agripulp, www.agripulp.com.
Green Field Paper Company at www.greenfieldpaper.com, 888-402-9979.
Dolphin Blue Paper at www.dolphinblue.com, 800-932-7715.