Sustainable Paper

ecosystem does its part by insisting on sustainable practices in all areas of production.

• Paper production takes a significant toll on the environment with 1/3 of all trees logged used for paper production.
• The most frequently encountered material in landfills is plain old paper-on average it accounts for 40% of a landfill's contents; and we throw away enough paper annually to heat 200M homes for 50 years.
• With global paper consumption expected to double in the next 15 years, it is imperative that the paper industry changes its manufacturing practices in order to protect remaining forests while limiting the continued exacerbation of the global warming problem.
• Despite a clear need for changing paper manufacturing practices, there have been demand and supply side challenges that have created road blocks to change:
• On the demand side, paper is often treated as a commodity and customers want high-quality paper at a low cost.
• On the supply side, billions of dollars have been invested over the last two centuries on the existing infrastructure, enabling cost efficiencies while creating a low margin and demanding marketplace.
• In order for the paper industry to move towards sustainable manufacturing practices, paper companies need to have a commitment to sustainability today so that they invest in the infrastructure for manufacturing sustainable paper in the future.

* Source: www.marketsinitiative.org, U.S. EPA, lime.com, Scientific American. Nov. 2007

Did You Know?

Over 80% of the world's largest tracts of ancient forests have already been logged, with 76 countries completely losing ALL of their original forest cover.