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In recent years, environmentalists have attacked paper, as it is an easy and emotive target. However, print and paper are products with a great environmental story to tell
 These are challenging times for books, magazines and newspapers, and their prime ingredient, paper. Everyone loves trees and images of clear cutting and paper waste can conjure up pictures of destruction and wastefulness, which seemingly threaten this wonderful natural resource.
It has also become fashionable to believe that new media is a more environmentally sustainable option. But there are two sides to any argument and it is now time to correct the misleading statements and explode the myths about the print and paper – and examine the alternatives whose impact is only now being fully understood.
A power tool
Print and paper is a hugely powerful communications medium, not only for education and study but also for commerce and industry where, even in this digital age, its portability and practicality still makes the printed word a central part of all our lives.
Paper is probably the most natural mass consumption product in the world; it’s a renewable crop. We should be singing its praises, encouraging its responsible use and not be swayed by a barrage of misinformation and exaggeration.
Of course, there’s always more that producers can do. Paper mills must continue to reduce their carbon footprint as well as source raw materials from verifiable sources. In some parts of the world forestry cover is decreasing but very seldom from the activities of the paper industry but from other local demands for land for farming and wood for fuel. Yet these problems have dominated the debate and tarnished the good record of the wider industry.
A recent survey revealed that 92 per cent of industry professionals believed that the general public were not well informed about paper’s environmental credentials. Other findings include:
- The European paper industry sources more than 80 per cent of its wood and its wood pulp from within Europe and the total area of European forest is now 30 per cent larger than in 1950 and increasing by 1.5 million football pitches each year.
- 50 per cent of all the paper used in Europe is made from recovered fibre.
- 54 per cent of the energy consumed by the European industry originates from biomass.
- Paper amounts for two thirds of all the packaging material recovered for recycling – more than glass, metal and plastic combined.
- A UN report has stated that forest health in Europe is good and is improving and the European Environmental Agency has stated that forestry practice in Europe is developing in such a way that can be considered good for diversity.
The new media alternatives are not environmentally friendlier. The paper industry is the second largest user of electricity in the US, consuming 75 billion kilowatt hours in 2006, however, US data centre electricity usage in 2005 was 56 billion kWh, and is growing at about 17 per cent per year. Also, the disposal of electronic goods (e-waste) is the fastest growing cause of toxic waste.
Print and paper, originating from a renewable resource, can aspire to be carbon neutral.
What savings?
Anglian Water recently encouraged customers to use online billing as a means of ‘saving our forests’. What forest they were saving was not made clear. This initiative was clearly a cost saving effort and whilst online billing is efficient to use, it depends on the running of a PC and there will also be many who will print at home, at a higher overall cost per bill than a wider postal mailing.
A recent Swedish study revealed that reading a traditional newspaper consumes 20 per cent less carbon than reading a newspaper online for 30 minutes.
Household mail has been calculated to contribute 14kg CO2 each year, or 0.1 per cent of the total household emissions, whilst a single PC consumes upwards of 495kg CO2 per year, 2 per cent of household emissions.
So, if the revelation in the Times that two Google searches are equivalent to boiling a kettle turned out to be an exaggeration, it does demonstrate that electronic media is not necessarily environmentally more sustainable than print and paper and can often result in a substantially higher environmental footprint.
Flexibility and creativity
It is the flexibility of print and paper that can lead to incredible creativity and other media cannot emulate its tactility. Reporting on the effectiveness of the printed word, the Royal Mail said: “Our mood will improve by up to 29 per cent if exposed to a positive tactile feeling.” It is now critical that users are given the facts that print and paper is an environmentally sound product, originating from natural resources.
There is other evidence that students learn faster and retain more information if itis presented as a printed page rather than on a computer screen.
Should we not be concerned about the influence of PCs upon the new generation? It was recently reported that children are now spending more time in front of their computer than in front of their teachers. Is this the rich learning experience our children need? It is being suggested that children’s emotional development is now being impaired by the lack of thought or concentration that can be the outcome of the sound and eye-bite nature of electronic communication.
Good sense
So how can the benefits of print and paper be balanced against the use of a natural resource and also be balanced against other media?
As always good sense should prevail. There are no right answers but the following appears sensible.
- For study and learning, nothing can replace a well-written and illustrated book.
- The ability to read and write, legibly and coherently, is a skill that our children will continue to need.
- Reading a daily newspaper is a fantastic way for students to broaden their reading skills and current affairs knowledge. Magazines can excite, entertain and educate. Book reading, on paper, will stretch the imagination.
- The internet is a wonderful resource for study but does not encourage original thought or creativity as will a blank piece of paper and 500 words to find.
- Minimise wastage by the effective circulation of material.
- Of course, use two sides printing at all times and avoid overlarge fonts
- Do all your documents need colour?
- Encourage students to see print and paper as a natural, renewable and recyclable product.
- Ensure that all paper waste is collected and made available for recycling.
- Consider the use of recycled content papers but remember that in Europe an average of 50 per cent recycled fibres are used to make new paper. (And, although paper fibres can be recycled up to six times, eventually we do need to harvest new trees.)
- Turn off all those power hungry PCs and printers when not in use.
In a world of scare resources, paper’s natural, renewable and recyclable properties are available to be enjoyed for generations to come. Print and paper is founded upon a renewable crop, a fact that, in the years ahead, will become increasingly recognised. We will do the present generation a favour if we tell them all the good things about this natural product.
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