Business Guide to Paper Reduction - Tufts Office of Sustainability

Production Pollution and Resource Use: To create pulp for office paper, generally a
kraft pulping process is used. This dissolves the wood chips and removes lignin, a
resinous binding that gives structure to the cells of the wood but will ultimately cause
yellowing in the paper if not removed. Overall, in this pulping process only about half
the tree is actually used to make the paper. 28 Pulp and paper mills in the U.S. produce
approximately 245,000 metric tons of toxic air pollutants every year, which may include
volatile organic compounds, sulfur, absorbable organic halides, chloroform, dioxin, and
furan. All of these toxins have known health risks. 29 Worldwide, pulp and paper is the
fifth largest industrial consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of the world’s
energy use, 30 and the processes use more water to produce a ton of product than any other
industry. 31 Overall, producing one ton of paper uses 98 tons of various resources. 32
Disposal Pollution: Paper, including paperboard, 33 is the single largest component of
municipal solid waste, constituting 38 percent of all materials. 34 As of May 2001,
approximately 46 percent of the office paper generated in the U.S. was recovered. 35 Thus,
despite long-term educational efforts, more paper is still going into landfills than is being
collected for recycling. 36 Once at the landfill, the carbon present in wastepaper
decomposes to produce methane, 37 a potent greenhouse gas. The paper also has toxic
printing inks on it. While printing inks have become less toxic over the years, many of
the color pigments are still made with heavy metals, which can eventually leach out of
the paper and contaminate groundwater through leaks in the landfill. 38
This description of environmental problems is not comprehensive. To understand the total
environmental impact of paper, a full life-cycle analysis would be needed, including factors such
as the transportation of trees to the mills and paper to the end-use destination, the extraction
involved in the development of the chemicals used in production processes and printing inks, and
the pollution in the production of those chemicals; among other factors. Ecological degradation
and potential health impacts from paper production should provide incentives to seek out better
ways to meet the needs of business and society.
D. Efficient Paper Use: Where the Environment and Business Intersect
Regardless of whether a company approaches paper reduction from an environmental or
economic perspective, the above-mentioned challenges can be addressed simultaneously. Even a
cursory investigation of paper use will often reveal opportunities to reduce inefficiency. Possible
approaches to these reductions vary in labor intensity and potential initial investment; some are
simple, some are significant. Either way, businesses frequently find a high return on investment
for their paper reduction efforts. As the examples below demonstrate, any scale of effort can
result in worthwhile savings:
Overall, producing one ton of paper uses 98 tons of various
resources.
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