MYTHS & FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

The production and use of paper is destroying U.S. forests.

U.S. forests are a renewable natural resource that is continuously replenished through sustainable forest management and natural regeneration.

U.S. forestland totals around 766 million acres, with the total live-tree volume exceeding 1 trillion cubic feet. This translates to nearly 9 billion stacked cords of wood. Each year, U.S forests grow approximately two times more tree volume than is harvested, with a net average annual increase in growing stock of about 25 billion cubic feet.

“When it comes to print on paper, the right things are often buried under an avalanche of misinformation driven by corporate greenwashing, pop culture media, competitive interests and anti-paper environmental activists. It’s a business imperative that printers arm themselves with the facts to help their customers and other stakeholders understand the inherent environmental benefits of print on paper, and how it contributes to a more sustainable, circular economy.”

From Two Sides’ perspective, it helps to tackle relevant environmental and social issues head-on with an arsenal of factual, authoritative information that works to quash myths and explain the industry’s sustainability goals. The resources help give stakeholders a solid foundation for making well-informed decisions about the use of print and paper products.

Paper manufacturing is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

The pulp and paper industry contributes less than 1% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon neutrality is an inherent property of biomass reflecting the fact that the carbon residing inside it was only recently removed from the atmosphere, so returning it to the atmosphere has no net effect on atmospheric CO2. This inherent property exists whether or not trees are regrown.

Paper manufacturing uses excessive amounts of water.

While paper-making requires large amounts of water, very little water is actually consumed in the production process.

In a typical U.S. paper mill, process water is recycled 10 times or more, then is cleaned to meet strict U.S. water quality standards. Approximately 90% is returned to its source. About 1% remains in the manufactured products, with the rest evaporating back into the environment.

Using paper products is wasteful.

Paper recycling extends the supply of a valuable natural resource (wood fiber from sustainably managed forests), saves landfill space, and avoids greenhouse gas emissions (methane) that result when paper decomposes in landfills.

In 2022, 68% of paper and paperbased packaging in the U.S. was recovered for recycling. The recycling rate for cardboard, what the industry calls corrugated, was 93.6%. About 80% of U.S. mills use recycled fiber.

Only recycled paper should be used to make new paper products.

The continuous input of wood fiber from sustainably managed forests is essential to the paper production cycle.

Every time paper is recycled, the fibers get shorter and weaker. After being recycled 5 to 7 times, the fibers become too short and weak to bond into new paper. Mills producing fresh fiber use different processes than mills using recycled fiber. As a result, the releases to the environment differ.

As Rowzie says, the truth—and untruths—are out there. For example, paper is one of the few products on earth that already has an environmentally sustainable, circular life cycle. North American paper is made from an infinitely renewable natural resource—trees, which are purpose-grown, harvested and regrown in sustainably managed forests.

“Paper is manufactured using mostly renewable, carbon neutral bioenergy in a process that uses a lot of water,” Rowzie says. “But in reality, it consumes very little of it. And with a 68% recovery rate, paper products are recycled more than any other material in the country’s municipal solid waste stream.”

Paper is a dying industry.

FACT

The U.S. paper industry makes products essential for everyday life.

THE SKINNY

The U.S. forest products industry is among the top 10 manufacturing employers in 43 states. The industry directly employs approximately 925,000 people and supports more than 2 million additional jobs throughout the supply chain. The forest products industry also is a major contributor to the U.S. economy, representing approximately 5% of manufacturing GDP.

Source: “Paper & Paper-Based Packaging Busting The Environmental Myths” — Two Sides North America

Buran believes that the solutions and answers to the industry’s sustainability path are ones that more companies should be willing to embrace and share. For example, it is helpful to undertake actions like using eco-friendly materials when possible. Waste reduction. Press optimization. Training employees. Continuous improvements in production, shipping and receiving. Choose suppliers with the same intentions. And the list goes on.

“It all comes down to transparency,” Buran says. “We, as an industry, must be able to show and share our progress without avoiding industry challenges.”

That is one of the approaches Two Sides—and others—hope catches on. The bottom line is that with consistent, verifiable messaging that is able to continually demonstrate the industry’s wealth of sustainable benefits, the industry—everyone on every side—can make a difference that can be measured.