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Frequently Asked Questions
For Terms & Definitions, please visit the
page on the CEPI website. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to
Contact us. For more general information on paper visit www.paperonline.org
What are the advantages of Paper?
Paper is with us all day. Try thinking of a day without it; no toilet paper in the morning, no newspaper to read at breakfast, no juice carton, an unfiltered coffee, no kitchen tissues to wipe the table, no bank notes to pay with, no letters or faxes in the office, no paper to print out emails, no paper to write on, no envelopes nor stamps, no photos of loved ones, no paper napkins for lunch, no magazines to read during breaks, no paper bags for carrying the shopping, no boxes to protect important goods, no book to read in bed.
Paper is all around us, working for us, delivering to us; it contributes to comfort, hygiene, security and information. Using paper doesn’t just make our lives easier; it also makes an important environmental contribution to sustainability. Paper is a natural product because it is manufactured from a natural and renewable raw material - wood - and it is 100% recyclable.
Paper provides essential, everyday products that contribute to our quality of life; it also plays an important role in promoting education, democracy, knowledge, information, and culture. More about paper on www.paperonline.org
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What is paper actually made from?
The paper industry uses two main raw materials for manufacturing paper – wood and recovered paper. Kaolin, starch and other products are used as supplementary materials in the paper production process.
Pulpwood used for papermaking once came from whole mature trees. Today, the papermaker usually uses parts of the tree that are left after wood has been used for other commercial purposes. Nearly all the pulpwood used in northern Europe could be classed as secondary cuttings, for example, thinnings extracted from the forest so that the remaining trees can grow to healthy maturity.
Recovered paper and board are the other major source of the paper industry’s raw material. 47.6% of the raw material used for paper production is recovered paper.
The industry was once based almost entirely on softwoods such as spruce, pine, larch, fir and cedar. Now birch, aspen and other hardwoods occurring in temperate climates are used as an ideal raw material for processing into fluting for corrugated cases as well as printing and writing papers, whilst eucalyptus, originally occurring only in Australia and New Zealand, has been successfully cultivated in other warm climates (e.g. South America, Spain and Portugal) as raw material for high-quality pulp suitable for a wide range of papers. Nevertheless, softwoods provide longer fibres (average 3 mm compared with 1mm for hardwoods) and continue to be used for papers required to have the highest strength characteristics.
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What makes the paper industry sustainable?
Paper is inherently sustainable; its raw materials are renewable and its products are recyclable. The European paper industry’s strategy is to use natural resources in an efficient way, reducing negative environmental and social impacts and meeting society’s need for sustainable consumption.
Choosing paper has an important and positive environmental effect. Utilising forest resources in a responsible way helps to ensure their vitality and continued growth. Paper products store carbon, helping to reduce greenhouse gases. These products can then be recycled, extending their life cycle and minimizing the use of landfill. When they can no longer be used or recycled it is possible to convert them into a renewable energy source.
This is all part of the virtuous eco-cycle that helps make the paper industry one of the most sustainable in Europe; working with and for the environment, delivering essential everyday products to society and making an important contribution to Europe’s economic wealth, including providing vital jobs in rural areas.
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How do forests and wood-based products help fight climate change?
The world’s forests – and the wood and paper products that come from them – are unique in their ability to remove and store CO2. Although young, vigorously growing forests are more efficient at fixing CO2 than old forests. A portion of the CO2 that trees remove from the atmosphere remains fixed in wood and paper products throughout their useful life.
The view that bound carbon will disappear once the forest has been harvested is, therefore, erroneous -- many forest products remain in circulation for a long time. Wooden houses and wooden bridges store CO2 for decades and it may be stored in books for more than 10 years. On average one tonne of paper, for example, contains some 1.4 tonnes of CO2.
In newsprint and corrugated fibreboard, the CO2 circulates several times via the recycling of paper and is therefore stored longer than would otherwise be the case. In this way, the recycling of CO2 into the atmosphere is delayed. Recycling paper also diverts it from landfill sites.
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Are Europe’s forests increasing or decreasing?
Contrary to public opinion, forest area in Europe is increasing, not decreasing every year. In fact it’s increasing annually by an area of 5810 km2 - that’s equivalent to an area the size of 4000 football pitches a day! One of the unique things about paper is that its main raw material, wood, is renewable. This combined with the sustainable way that European forests are managed, means that 33% more new trees grow in Europe each year than are felled. The European paper industry actively supports and promotes sustainable forest management.
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What paper products can be recycled?
Almost any household and office waste paper can be recycled, including used newspapers, cardboard, packaging, stationery, printing and copy paper, notebooks, "direct mail", magazines, catalogues, greeting cards and wrapping paper. It is important that these papers are kept separate from other waste -- ‘contaminated’ papers, those that have been in contact with food for example, are not acceptable for recycling.
Paper products can have several ‘lives’ as a result of recycling as they can be recycled several times - your stationery may go on to be a newspaper and then packaging for example. Recycling has its limits though. Every time a fibre in paper is recycled, it loses some of its strength. After being re-used about five to six times, it is no longer strong enough for papermaking.
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Why can’t we recycle 100% of paper products?
More than half of the paper used in Europe today is already recycled, 55.4%. And the paper industry is part of a drive to increase that rate to 66% by 2010.
When looking at targets for increasing recycling rates we need to consider the percentage of paper that can actually be recycled. If we take into account paper that cannot be recycled such as cigarette papers, archives, or papers used in construction materials, then the maximum theoretical recycling rate for paper would be 81% instead of 100%. In practice, further amounts of paper would not be available for collection because they are used for other purposes - such as lighting fires - and it would not be economically viable or environmentally sustainable to collect every piece of paper.
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What are the advantages of paper and board packaging?
Paper and board forms the basis for 40% of all packaging in Europe today. Its use has become increasingly popular for a number of reasons
- It is versatile - coming in a variety of forms from functional brown cardboard boxes to beautiful wrapping papers.
- It is robust and adaptable - corrugated board can be used to protect a range of goods from delicate porcelain to large electrical items
- It is practical - cartons can be delivered flat to the packager, reducing both space and transport costs
- It makes sense for the environment and the economy:
- It is easily recycled – paper and board packaging has a recycling rate of 77%, higher than any other packaging material in Europe and well beyond the 60% target set for end 2008 by the European Commission.
- It is made from renewable materials, recovered paper and woodpulp
- Corrugated board boxes have lower environmental impact and costs than plastic crates. Corrugated boxes perform better in both areas than reusable plastic crates – according to a recent study by the packaging Transport and Logistics Research institute (ITENE) at the University of Valencia, Spain.
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