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The average person in the US consumes about 700 lbs of paper, making
US the largest consumer of paper in the world. 90% of the
printing/writing paper comes from virgin tree fiber
- Conventional paper
is also bleached using chlorine or chlorine derivatives, which create
dioxins and other toxins and pollutants.
- Once used, paper generally ends up in the municipal
waste stream, making up to 40% of the total waste, instead of being recycled
and reused.
Producing recycled paper causes 74 percent less air pollution, 35 percent
less water pollution, and creates 5 times the number of jobs than producing
paper from trees. It saves old-growth trees, forest eco-systems, native
habitat and biodiversity.
Recyclable vs. Recycled vs. Post Consumer Waste Recycled
It is important to be clear about the meaning between the three often
used terms. All paper is recyclable. The "recycling
symbol" has very little meaning, as it can be used on items which
can be "recycled" but may have zero recycled content. Paper
which is designated as
"recycled" can be a mixture of virgin wood fiber, pre-consumer
waste or post-consumer waste. It is important to
distinguish between the pre-consumer and post-consumer content in recycled
paper. Pre-consumer content is paper made out of
paper scraps and trimmings left over from the paper manufacturing process. These paper scraps and
trimmings are easiest to recycle, as
they do not have to be collected, separated, deinked etc. Post consumer waste
(PCW) is paper made out
of paper which has been used by the end consumer and then is collected for
recycling from various recycling programs. This is the best paper to
buy, as it uses and creates demand for paper which would normally end up in
the landfill and no trees are cut down for making the paper.
The actual percentage of the recycled and post-consumer recycled content
is important to note when buying paper, e.g. 50% recycled 20% PCW, means 50%
comes from virgin wood, 30% is pre-consumer recycled and 20% is
post-consumer recycled. We do our best to find paper products, which are
100% PCW recycled and are
either unbleached or bleached without using chlorine or chlorine
derivatives.
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