Have you ever wondered how sustainable the paper production chain is? Today, we will summarize some facts about paper industry in general and paper production in Europe. The information used in this post is dedicated to the work of twosides.info.
Virgin fiber from new trees is needed in paper production industry but sustainable method is applied
It is true that paper, especially our corrugated carboard, can be made from recycled paper. However, old paper in Europe could be recycled for only 3.5 times in average, and the more time it is recycled, the more degraded quality of its fibres become. And also, not 100% used paper is collected for making new paper. For above reasons, virgin fibres from wood chip is necessary to fill in the gap between paper demand and the supply of recycled paper fibres.
However, paper industry respects the rules for circular economy when using the virgin wood chip. In fact, most of the wood used for paper production is from sustainable forests which are certified by 2 most trust-worthy schemes: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Those forests must meet the strict requirements in managing and controlling the cycle of planting, growing and logging, which makes sure the sustainable renewal of forestry resources.
Both FSC and PEFC will also consider the conservation of woodlands to maintain the habitants of animals, eco-system and local forestry economy. They watch over the track of wood and supply chain of wood fibres from the jungles to the paper consumers.
According to European Paper Recycling Council, 72% of paper is recycled in 2017, which makes up 53% fibres used in new paper production. In several products like some paper packaging, it is possible to use 100% recycled fibres.
Also according to twosides.info, paper and printing industry only account for 1% of carbon dioxide emission in Europe per year, which is seen as the greenest manufacturing industry. The direct emission from paper production is reducing by one forth during the period 2005-2017.
From above information, we can conclude that, paper production is much eco-friendly than other industries. At least, both wood and used paper are renewable and biodegradable materials, for this reason, more and more brands has replaced their plastic packaging by Botta Packaging’s paper-based solutions.
