The Life Cycle of Paper

A lot of attention has been given recently to the carbon footprint of print versus digital media. As a printer concerned about the environment, I have been watching this debate with interest. Paper has the biggest impact on printing, so it makes sense to look at the life cycle of paper to determine the environmental impact of printing.

When considering the life cycle of paper, there are three stages to look at:

1. Where did the paper come from? Ideally, all of the paper used for printing would be recycled. Unfortunately, there’s not enough recycled paper for all of the material being printed. In that case, the best option is to use paper from sustainably harvested forests.
2. How was it printed? Sustainable printing means doing what you can to minimize your environmental impact. If your printing was done sustainably, it should be a carbon-neutral process after the paper has been made.
3. What will happen to the paper after it’s been used? Recycled paper can be recycled 4-6 times before the fibers become too short to use. As long as the paper is recycled, it will be recycled until it disintegrates and never go in to the landfill.

In some ways, printing is like eating meat. We’re surrounded by reports about the health risks of eating meat, but most people can’t give it up. The solution, for those who can’t give up meat, is to eat it in moderation and preferably from free range, grass-fed cattle. Printing is the same – email was supposed to do away with paper use, but instead everyone started printing out their emails. Because we’re not going to give up printing, we believe that as printers we have a responsibility to make our industry as sustainable as possible. That’s what we try to do every day at Greenerprinter.