Making the Case for Print and Paper

In this age of electronic communications media, the paper and printing industries increasingly are finding it necessary to defend themselves. The paper industry was an early target of radical green activists who claimed—and many still do—that paper production destroys the nation’s forests and other natural resources, so paper-based communications should be eliminated whenever possible.

Last year, International Paper began to push back against these efforts in its “Down to Earth” series of brochures, which address a range of sustainability issues. The first brochure, “Where Does Paper Come From?” explains the basic principles behind sustainable forestry and describes the leading certification programs. But that was only the start.

The second asks, “Is Recycled Paper the Best You Can Do?” and offers factual information about the market for recycled papers, their manufacture and recommended applications. For example, the brochure notes that more than half of all paper in the United States is recovered, but that volume is not enough to fulfill market demand. One reason is that much of the paper recovered in the United States and Europe is purchased by Chinese and other Asian paper producers, which have few domestic sources of pulp.

“Combine this demand with the fact that 10 tons of old paper may yield only eight tons of usable pulp, and you can see that we cannot depend only on recovered fiber,” the brochure says. In addition, recycled papers must be de-inked, which requires more energy than processing virgin fibers.

The brochure advises using paper with a high volume of recycled content for applications that use color paper, or for things like file folders that don’t require a bright white shade. For applications like digital printing that do need a bright white surface, papers made from virgin pulp or with only minimal recycled content work best—and these can be recycled several times after their initial use.

Another brochure in the series, “How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint?” discusses a topic very much in the news today. The total volume of carbon on earth is constant, and the trick is to keep out of the atmosphere and “sequestered” on earth. “Forests provide both the materials and most of the energy needed to create paper and other forest products,” the brochure notes. “Well-managed forests are a renewable resource that provides balance to the carbon cycle by capturing CO2 from the air and sequestering the carbon. In fact, an acre of young, healthy trees will produce 4,280 lbs. of oxygen and capture 5,880 lbs. of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.”

The latest pamphlet in the series, “Are Pixels Greener than Paper?” confronts electronic media head-on and offers some interesting facts, such as:

• Electronic devices are typically made of plastics and other non-renewable resources, and often contain chemicals and metals.
• The amount of electricity to run a computer for only five months could produce enough paper for the average person to use for an entire year.
• Paper is biodegradable and nearly 60 percent of all paper in the United States is recycled.
• Only 18 percent of all electronic devices are currently recycled and e-waste constitutes the single largest waste export in the United States.

The brochures are available free of charge at www.ipsustainability.com.

Speaking Out

David B. Struhs, vice president of sustainability at International Paper, recently delivered an address at the U.S. Postal Service’s 2009 Biennial Forum in Washington, D.C., that further advances the case for using paper and print communications. Titled “Camouflaged in Green,” the speech focuses mainly on the general topic of choice in communications media, but also offers some startling facts about electronic vs. print: