Why recycled papers have not quite made the grade

Despite powerful advocates, recycled paper has not realised its potential in terms of volumes sold. Instead, virgin grades, albeit ones certified by PEFC and FSC, now hold the environmental high ground. Words Jon Severs

There was a time a few years back when recycled paper was the next big thing. It was fêted as a star in the making, pushed into the limelight by eager backers including the incumbent government and the big corporates. It was singled out as the very embodiment of environmental responsibility. Then, just on the cusp of stardom, as the merchants watched the sales graph for recycled content substrates climb ever higher at ever steeper angles, something, somewhere, went wrong.

For recycled paper never made it to the levels of use expected, and what ground it did make has been gradually eroded by the likes of FSC- and PEFC-certified products. Today, recycled paper makes up only around 7% of the total of woodfree coated, woodfree uncoated and copier paper sold in the UK, according to NAPM figures. And that is a couple of percent lower than it was last year. There is some disagreement as to the reasons behind this downfall – price, supply, mismanagement, quality issues or even that recycled is not as green as has been portrayed – but all concede that a downfall it certainly is.

“A few years back, I remember clamours from our sales teams and clients for more recycled content products and for a period I remember thinking that if that demand continued to grow at the same pace, then we would quickly have a sustainability issue as the maximum capacity we could have produced would have been reached,” recalls Nick Brown, product manager at Antalis McNaughton. “As it happened, we peaked at a certain level for a while and then in the past few years that demand has been steadily declining – we went up the mountain and now we are coming down the other side.”

Tim Bowler, director at NAPM, suggests the reasons for this decline are multiple, but that the natural march onwards of technology and the shift to new printing processes cannot be discounted.

“One of the grades really popular for recycled substrates, say 10 years ago, was letterhead paper,” he explains. “Companies were going for nice letterheads on recycled paper, but letterhead paper has gone down as people switch to email. Then you have the emergence of high-speed digital printing; the paper needs to be spot on and there is more chance of a virgin paper being consistent than recycled paper.”

Bowler adds, though, that supply issues in the boom years were also to blame. He cites the government decision in 2006 to insist that departments use only recycled paper for print communications as a key factor in both highlighting and exacerbating supply issues and in driving up prices for recycled grades (these factors led the government in 2009 to include FSC and PEFC grades, alongside recycled, in its stipulations).

RECYLED PAPER FACTS-
After extensive research, Arjowiggins has released a number of statistics and figures that it believes will stand up to scrutiny and really make the case for recycled paper. Here are some of the key points:

•     Producing one tonne of recycled paper (related to Cocoon 100%) uses 27,000 fewer litres of water than producing non-recycled paper. The water saved is equivalent to one person’s water usage for 180 days
•     Manufacturing one tonne of 100% recycled paper (relating to Cyclus) emits 428kg of CO2 compared to 800kg emissions per tonne of non-recycled paper. The emissions saving is the equivalent of driving from Paris to Moscow
•     Every tonne of 100% recycled paper (Cyclus) purchased saves 5,736kWh of electricity. The energy saving is the equivalent to the annual energy consumption of a three-bedroom house
•     Recycling 8.6 tonnes of paper in the UK and avoiding landfill saves 11 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. The savings on carbon is equivalent to taking 3.5m cars off the road