Consumables

Have you heard the one about the paper company that manufactured and marketed virgin fibre paper mocked up to look like recycled stock? Sounds like a bad joke, doesn't it? However, one paper industry stalwart claims he witnessed the practice first hand and that the perpetrators got away with their shenanigans scot-free. According to the source, back in the "good old days", the mill cashed in on the rising demand for recycled stock from the design community by flicking spots of ink onto the paper using a dripper pan and a piece of string to give it a 'recycled' appearance.

Parallels can be drawn between this tale and the story that broke earlier this year, which rocked the Japanese paper industry. Oji Paper, Japan’s leading papermaker, shocked the country’s consumers when it admitted that it had lied for more than a decade about the volume of recycled paper used in some of its products. The Oji story broke just days after Japan’s second biggest paper company, Nippon Paper Group, owned up to making similarly false claims.

Debate raged as to what was the most shocking: the fact that a Japanese corporation had lied or the size of the lie. The difference between the amount of recovered fibres that Oji claimed to be using and what it was actually using varied wildly, with some copier paper allegedly containing just 5-10% recycled fibres, when on the packet it claimed recycled content of up to 50%. Worse still, some products labelled ‘recycled’ contained no recycled material at all.

Demand outstrips supply
One of the main factors behind the deceit, according to the companies involved, was that demand for recycled paper had risen substantially, but the amount of recycled fibre available for papermaking had not. 

If it can happen in Japan, one of the world’s most clean-cut business powers, then what are the chances of a similar thing happening in Europe? In the wake of the scandal, the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) was quick to assuage any concerns by stating that it was confident that its own members were not indulging in similar underhand tactics.

While it’s probably safe to assume that recycled content claims by European paper manufacturers are fairly robust, that’s not to say that the current recycled paper accreditation system couldn’t be improved upon. One area in which there is definite room for some improvement would be the creation of a legal definition for what constitutes recycled paper. It may come as a surprise to some to hear that, under the existing regime, ‘recycled paper’ can quite simply be paper that contains recovered fibre from waste paper.

So, in theory at least, mills could market and manufacture paper containing only 10% recovered materials and label the product ‘recycled’, or at least print ‘contains recycled content’, on the packaging.

This grey area is a major cause for concern for buyers, many of whom are working within strict purchasing parameters to ensure that the impact of their business on the environment is minimised. Therefore, they need to be armed with as much information as possible to guide their purchasing decisions.

But, while the majority of buyers now know the difference between pre- and post-consumer waste and will aim, wherever possible, to get the highest recycled percentage available, surely there should be some kind of base figure that they should look out for? The National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) sets the bar for its own recycled paper scheme at a minimum 50% recovered waste – as good a starting point as any. Somewhat disappointingly, however, a spokesperson for WRAP, the government backed recycling advocacy group, fails to shed further light on the issue – indeed, its stance only helps to muddy the waters further.

“As far as we are aware, there is no actual percent of recycled content within any of the various paper grades to constitute the term ‘recycled’,” explains the WRAP spokesperson. “Rather, it is a probable range for each major paper grade. WRAP defines recycled paper as ‘paper that contains a percentage of recovered fibre from waste paper’.”

Left on your own
So, for the time being at least, it appears as if buyers are going to have to set their own targets and hope that, in the future, an industry-wide target figure is agreed upon. One of the main reasons for much of the confusion highlighted above is that assuring or reporting the recycled fibre content of a paper product is extremely problematic due to the complexity of the paper supply chain.

As Dick Dalley, from corporate social responsibility consultancy CSRnetwork, explains: “Any papermaker (and its products) sits at the end of what can be a very complex supply chain that starts with either growing trees (for virgin fibre) or waste paper (for recycled fibre). The fibre pulp used by a manufacturer to produce a finished paper product can come from a variety of sources, including pulp they make themselves from trees they grow and harvest, wood they buy-in from third parties, die-inked waste paper and pulp that they import from other manufacturers. The manufacturer is likely to know a good deal about trees it grows and harvests itself and also about the de-inked pulp it produces, but it will know much less about wood it imports and very little about pulp it imports.”

The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that an individual paper mill may be fed from a mixture of the above sources and that mix may change throughout the year, depending on supply factors. It’s not entirely beyond the realms of possibility that this shortage of suitable waste material could lead to shortcuts being taken, as was the case in Japan. In this age of transparency, with corporates subject to intense scrutiny, both from the media and from non-governmental organisations, they cannot afford to be caught out by unscrupulous claims or murky activity by companies in their supply chain.

For these companies, the general rule of thumb has to be to look for products bearing recycled content labels supported by independent certification under an established scheme such as the NAPM’s recycled paper marks, which are available in three different levels.

According to NAPM director Tim Bowler, to attain the association’s seal of approval through its paper mark scheme, which was re-launched a couple of years ago and has been a “great success”, companies must send three A4 samples of the brand in all weights and colours. The paper must by manufactured from a minimum of 50%, 75% or 100% genuine paper and board waste fibre, no part of which should contain mill produced waste.

Rigorous approval scheme
As part of the application process, companies swear to notify the NAPM if the “pulp specification is varied and as a result the recovered fibre content is reduced to below the minimum level for certification”. The scheme’s approval process is rigorous and Bowler confirms that the association has previously turned down a brand because of a “dubious content of recovered fibre”.

“The self-certification process lasts for two years,” continues Bowler. “So, every two years the authenticity of the recovered fibre content of the product has to be approved.”

Unfortunately, the NAPM does not have the resources to regularly audit the manufacturing process of each mill and brand, so the scheme is based on trust, but it does provide a safeguard for buyers seeking some degree of assurance.

And the good news for industry is that the debate has moved on. Whereas just a couple of years ago the main talking point surrounding recycled paper grades was whether they were of a good enough quality and whether people were paying a premium for them, today buyers are more concerned with the nuts and bolts – how the paper was manufactured and what it’s manufactured from. This degree of scrutiny and industry-wide calls for greater clarity can only lead to improvements that benefit all parts of the supply chain.

TOP TIPS – BUYING RECYCLED PAPER

CSRnetwork’s Dick Dalley says that buyers have four options open to them when purchasing recycled paper:

1. Trust the claims the manufacturer is making Taken at face value alone, manufacturers’ claims inspire low confidence
   
2. Buy products that have “recycled content” labels or similar Again, at face value, “recycled content” labels don’t necessarily mean a thing
   
3. Look for products with recycled content labels supported by independent chain of custody certification under an established scheme This represents the simplest and most practical route that buyers can take to provide confidence about product claims
   
4. Only buy from manufacturers that back up their claims with a comprehensive sustainability report, which describes their raw-material-tracking programme and has a credible independent assurance process This requires more effort and engagement by the buyer, but can also provide a high level of confidence in the claims being made

Source: CSRnetwork