Why use recycled paper?
While it seems to make good common sense to reuse or recycle paper rather than just dump it in big holes in the ground when you’ve finished with it, what about all the energy used in collecting, transporting and recycling paper – do the sums really add up?
Fortunately, someone’s already
done the maths. A major international study (the largest of its kind) has been commissioned by the UK’s Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) on what’s called Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of materials that are commonly recycled, like paper. There’s no need to plough through the whole report – we’ve summarised its findings for you: |
|
 |
Carbon
Good news on the carbon front. When comparing the manufacture of 100% recycled paper to paper made from virgin fibre, one tonne of recycled paper can save 1.32 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. To give you a concrete example, Warwick Business School, one of our clients, has just switched to 50% recycled paper for their Alumni magazine.
At 5.2 tonnes of paper per issue they’ve reduced their carbon footprint by 3.5 tonnes of CO2. That’s a real difference, and with just 50% recycled paper.
|
|
|
Energy
It’s good news here too. There’s an average of 50% less energy consumed when recycling instead of incinerating paper, over its entire life-cycle. In other words, making paper from virgin timber then incinerating it (even taking into account the fact that incineration plants produce electricity) consumed twice as much energy as recycling. In real terms, one tonne of recycled paper requires 3-4,000 KWh less of electricity to produce than paper from virgin fibre. That’s enough to power a typical 3-bedroom house for a year.
|
|
|
Water
It gets even better: the production of one tonne of recycled paper consumes approximately 30,000 fewer litres of water than the production of one tonne of virgin fibre paper. About half the yearly water consumption of your average Brit.
To summarise, the report concludes that recycled paper is better for the environment than virgin fibre paper on two counts. Firstly, it helps divert waste paper away from landfill; secondly its manufacture is less damaging to the environment than the manufacture of virgin fibre paper. For the full report click here.
|
|
