Facts and statistics

Over 1,200 offices have joined The Laundry since the scheme began. Organisations range from dentists, designers and jewellers to calligraphers and cafés. This amounts to approximately 12,000 office staff on the scheme.

In 2007/2008 The Laundry expects to recycle 700 tonnes of paper, equivalent to 11,900 trees saved trees saved from felling, with 100 tonnes of local recycled paper being purchased.

Eco-footprinting paper
Using data generated from a Life Cycle Assessment of of The Laundry's sister project Local Paper for London, ecological footprint analysis was carried out on the Local paper for London scheme. The ecological footprint of the local paper loop is just 14% of virgin imported paper. This is because it uses less than half of the energy, saves trees and is better than incineration.

Paper recycling and landfilling
UK office and printing paper (graphics paper) has the lowest recycling rate of all paper grades – 81% is landfilled or incinerated while wood pulp is imported to make paper.

Graphics paper includes all printed paper apart from newsprint. So it includes highest quality office paper such as letterhead and photocopier paper (as recycled on the Local Paper for London scheme), all magazines, glossy and matt, inserts in newspapers, wanted and unwanted direct mail and catalogues.

Incredibly, given all the hype around ‘buy recycled’ policies and the years that have gone by since we became aware of this issue, just 5% of graphics paper purchased has any recycled content, whether that be 25% recycled or 100% recycled. This could be much less than 5% actual recycled content.

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee's Second Report of Session 2004-05 on Corporate Environmental Crime shows that 60% of commercial waste produced in this country comes from SMEs so it is vital that they are encouraged to recycle, and this is what the Laundry does. Furthermore, we estimate that high-grade office paper comprises 83% of the average office waste (figures from Corporation of London also suggest this) and another 8% of recyclable material, so simply by recycling with the Laundry, an office is able to reduce the amount they throw away by 91%.

Every tonne of recycled paper saves the equivalent of 600kg of carbon dioxide. Dumping paper in landfill also adds methane to the atmosphere as it decomposes, with 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

Consumption of paper
World demand for paper is growing faster than for other wood products. Paper consumption worldwide is predicted to double by 2020. With new demand mainly coming from countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Source – www.paperloop.com (2002) Pulp and Paper international, Brussels

In the UK we consume 4.6 million tonnes of graphics paper annually. That is 33% of total paper and packaging consumption. When you consider that we consume just 2.5 million tonnes of newsprint you can see this is quite a significant area.

Deforestation and paper pulp production
Paper production accounts for 42% of industrial forest use, or put another way 20% of the world’s wood harvest.

Source - Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2000-2001 Earthscan

A report published in 2000 by WWF shows that most of the wood used in Indonesia’s pulp mills still comes from clear cutting old-growth Indonesian forests, with some 800,000 hectares destroyed in the last 10 years alone.

Source – Christopher Barr, CIRFOR 2000, Profits of paper, The Political Economics of Fibre, Finance and Debts in Indonesia’s Pulp and Paper Industries.

Last updated 14th January 2008