The local office paper recycle and buy back loop

About the report

Summary of a life cycle assessment and ecological footprint analysis and comparison of the local paper loop with imported virgin and recycled paper.

Published May 2006
33 pages

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Introduction

Intuitively it seemed to us that the local loop should be a better choice for our environment (and our economy), but to actually quantify it BioRegional commissioned Novensys Consulting and Surrey University to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment of the local paper recycle and buy back system compared to the impact of imported virgin paper and imported recycled paper. BioRegional asked Best Foot Forward to use the data to produce an Ecological Footprint Analysis and comparison.

The key findings are that
1. The local paper loop system is environmentally preferable to imported virgin paper production, incineration for energy recovery and imported recycled paper. The local loop system has lower impacts in terms of climate change, acidification and use of finite fossil fuel and mineral resources

2. Ecological Footprint analysis of the data shows that the local paper loop system reduces the ecological footprint of office paper use by a staggering 92% compared to imported virgin paper.

Energy
The paper industry is very energy intensive using 10% of the world’s industrial energy and 4% of total world energy . Energy use in the pulp and papermaking process was found to be by far the biggest impact in this study.

The m-real mill where the EVOLVE recycled paper is made was built in 1996 and is a modern and very efficient plant.

We compared the EVOLVE paper made at the m-real plant to paper made in US paper mills4 because although in the UK we buy more of our paper from within Europe, full life cycle data for European pulp and paper mills was not available. Every paper mill is different but paper made in Europe is known to be produced slightly more efficiently on average than paper made in the USA. The most energy efficient European virgin paper mills using Best Available Techniques (not an average European mill) will use between 18-27 GJ per tonne of paper compared to the US actual industry average figures of 35 GJ per tonne. A best practice European recycled paper mill will use 7.5-12 GJ per tonne.

Transport
Transport energy is a lower proportion of energy used for each tonne of paper. But it is still a significant figure being 8% of energy used. The local loop was defined as 101 kilometres between the customer and the mill and transport impacts were reduced by 88% in this case. The study also showed that purchase of recycled paper made in Kent by customers as far away as Glasgow still has a lower impact than imported virgin or recycled paper.

The carbon savings of the local recycled paper and buy back system compared to the virgin imported paper and imported recycled paper are shown in Table 4 below. As energy is recovered from wood waste in the virgin paper scenarios this reduces carbon dioxide emissions but recycled paper made locally in an efficient mill has the lowest carbon impact. As noted previously the LCA data shows a more efficient mill.

The climate change impacts of sending paper to landfill were not considered in the study but are significant. Methane, which is produced when paper decomposes in a landfill site, has 21 times the global warming potential of CO2. This methane can be converted to CO2 emissions for comparison. Each tonne of recycled paper produced saves the equivalent of 600kg of CO2 emissions if that paper is not sent to landfill when considered over a 100 year time horizon.

Reduced transport in the local loop accounts for savings of 420kgs per tonne of paper compared to imported virgin paper.

Local employment
Increased use of recycled paper utilises waste as a domestic raw material, so reducing imports of pulp. According to Paperback, research suggests that 12 jobs can be created in the economy for every 1,000 tonnes of paper recycled.

Conclusions
The LCA and ecological footprint study show that for UK organisations combining recycling with buying back the paper produced, locally or anywhere within the UK reduces the ecological footprint of an offices paper consumption by up to 92% compared to using imported virgin paper.

Download report PDF
........................................................................................................
BioRegional is a registered charity – if you would like to make a donation for this report please visit www.justgiving.com to do so securely on-line – suggested donation £4.00.  

Your support will help us to continue developing vital solutions for sustainable living.