Making paper

1 Shred scrap paper such as unwanted copy paper, old magazines and newspapers as finely as possible. An old blender gives the best results but the blade can become dulled. Scissors or hand tearing will produce the same result in a longer amount of time.

2 Soak shredded paper in a bucket of warm water to soften the fibers, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Water should completely cover the paper and should continue to soak until the paper has become mushy. If you want to dye the paper with food coloring, add a few drops at this point.

3 Drain the paper mix by straining out the water using a flat sieve and a bowl or sink to catch the water. Allow as much water as possible to drip from the paper mixture. Squeeze out additional moisture by pushing on the paper mix as it rests on the sieve.

4 Take a small amount of the paper mix and place it on a nonporous surface. A couple of handfuls of mix is enough to make one sheet of notepaper size.

5 Push down on the paper mix, molding it into a flatter and uniform rectangular shape. Be sure not to push too hard as you flatten out the paper mush. Small gaps increase as the paper dries and contracts. Use a flat nonporous object such as a spatula, rolling pin or a plastic ruler to make the paper mix as smooth as possible.

6 Add additional novelty to the paper at this time. Leaves or a petal pushed into the corners of the constructed page adds a nice detail.

7 Allow the paper to dry completely before gently peeling it away from the nonporous surface.

Paper Facts

Elephant Pharmacy

Elephant Pharmacy is a retail chain based in Northern California that focuses on natural health and wellness products. Celery helped the company launch their first store with a unique direct mail campaign. Rather than starting from the “junk-mail” paradigm of a plastic bag door hanger stuffed with glossy coupons, we imagined the project as an opportunity to give a small gift to 30,000 people. This simple change of perspective impacted the whole project. The resulting “gift box” contained free samples of natural health and wellness products along with illustrated coupons. The mailer was constructed with recycled chip board and featured a pop-out door hanger, which made it completely recyclable. Each box was delivered with a fresh flower tucked into a paper belly-band. The flowers were the idea of Elephant’s founder and CEO, who really embraced the concept of direct mail as a gift-giving opportunity. People hate junk mail, but they love flowers.

The 3 R's : Paper

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Paper

Paper use is expected to double by 2020*. The average consumer uses over 700 pounds of paper products every year, which is 10 times more than a century ago, and almost twice the per capita consumption since the 1970s.** There are a number of things we can do to reduce our consumption of paper. A few ideas are on this list, which will be updated often. Click here to send your tips!

Reduce

• Only print what's necessary.
• Make the point size smaller in your documents to reduce the number of printouts.
• Send people PDFs instead of printouts.
• Eliminate fax cover sheets by using self-adhesive fax notes.
• Order supplies by phone, email or online.
• Purchase office supplies with the highest Postconsumer content as possible (to learn more, click here.)
• Don't overprint: find out how many people need to receive what you are sending out.
• Before designing a project, get estimates from printers first. Often times, during the negotiations for cost reduction, printers will suggest a different trim size. For example, printing an 8.5" x 11" brochure will cost more than 8.5" x 10 7/8". It's only a 1/8" difference on the height, but depending on the quantity of your brochures, the savings could be in the thousands of dollars, and much less paper waste.
• Spec the paper weight that is suffecient to perform the job. This saves you on postage too.
• Ask your designer to spec recycled paper or even tree-free paper (lots of beautiful options, i.e. cotton, kenaf, bamboo, bagasse, etc.).
• Tired of junk mail? Go to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) or www.stopwaste.org's brochure to find out more.

Reuse

• Use the other side of printed sheets when documents are not in the final stages, like proofing text or emails for example. (Have a stack ready to load your printer.)
• Cut scraps of paper and use them as notes.
• Save cardboard boxes for a future shipping.
• Avoid paper products as much as possible: use cloth towels instead of paper towel, use a ceramic mug instead of paper cup.
• Reuse file folders.
• Donate your old books, trade and consumer magazines to your local library.

Recycle

• Recycling is simple: just have separate trash cans set up for paper, bottles, and trash. On the day of trash collection, it's a lot easier to bring them out.
• Recycling pickup is free, therefore the more you sort out from trash, the more you can save in refusal pickup fees.
• Buy recycled too. It helps to solidify the market for post-consumer products in the marketplace.
• Look for new and unique opportunities to reduce, reuse or recycle paper products.
• Display the recycled symbol and PCW content on your printed materials.

tree-free, water-free, recyclable paper

FiberStone® Paper is made from 80% calcium carbonate and 20% non-toxic High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). The calcium carbonate comes from limestone collected as waste material from existing quarries for the building and construction industry. It is ground into a fine powder-like chalk and the HDPE acts as a binder for the calcium carbonate. Together these materials create a tough, durable paper that is both water and tear resistant providing a soft, smooth, bright white paper that performs like a film but without all the petroleum.

FiberStone Paper is made with a clean production process, which does not utilize water or emit emissions and has a low carbon footprint and energy consumption rate. The Paper is chlorine free, bleach free, acid-free and photodegradable after a period of about 14-18 months. It can also be recycled with traditional paper or plastic recycling methods.

What does it take to make one ton of paper?

FSC: Forest Stewardship Council

Forestry certification

With so many questionable ‘green’ claims out there, it’s important to stick to a certification system that’s trusted and watertight.

In 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development agreed that in order to be truly sustainable a forest would have to be managed according to three criteria:

• Environmental
• Social
• Economic

Of the forestry harvested in the UK only a small percentage goes into paper products, so most virgin fibre is imported. Some of this imported fibre will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), but most of it will be uncertified.

FSC certification is widely accepted to be the most stringent. Unlike other schemes, the emphasis is on tracking fibre all the way from the forest to the end use, so the user can be certain of the fibre’s origins.

Many new environmental certification schemes have been launched by forest and paper companies – such as the Nordic Swan label, but Greenpeace and WWF don’t regard these schemes as watertight. For example, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forestry Certification Schemes (PEFC) – an international forest industry initiative that acts as an umbrella for many smaller national forestry schemes – “does not comply with the basic requirements for forest certification”, according to WWF’s Forests for Life campaign. (Source: Green Futures)

Until the PEFC redresses the balance, FSC is the way to go.

The Forest Stewardship Council is an international, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world’s forests.

The number of FSC-certified forests is growing rapidly, covering 84 million hectares worldwide – about 10% of the world’s production forest.

Forests are inspected and certified against the 10 principles and criteria of Forest Stewardship which take into account environmental, social and economic factors. The FSC is the only certification scheme endorsed by NGOs worldwide, although recently even the FSC has proven not to be completely watertight.

In addition to forest management and certification, the FSC Chain of Custody tracks the timber from the forest to the paper mill and then to the printer.

If a printer is FSC certified, then the end product can carry the FSC label ensuring that there has been no contamination between FSC and non-FSC material. However, the Chain of Custody is broken if the manufacturing mill or printer is not FSC certified.

The FSC Principles of forest stewardship include consideration for:

• Indigenous people’s rights
  Respect for the legal and customary rights of indigenous peoples to own, use and manage their lands, territories and resources
• Community and workers’ rights
  Forest management must maintain or enhance long-term economic and social well-being for these groups
• Environmental impact
  Conserve biodiversity and make sure forest retains its ecological balance and integrity
• Monitoring and assessment
  The condition and productivity of the forest, and the environmental impacts of management, must be monitored
• Maintenance of high conservation value forests
  Operations must maintain or enhance the special attributes of these forests

Overview of the FSC Principles and Criteria

Principle 1. Compliance with all applicable laws and international treaties

Principle 2. Demonstrated and uncontested, clearly defined, long–term land tenure and use rights

Principle 3. Recognition and respect of indigenous peoples' rights

Principle 4. Maintenance or enhancement of long-term social and economic well-being of forest workers and local communities and respect of worker’s rights in compliance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions

Principle 5. Equitable use and sharing of benefits derived from the forest

Principle 6. Reduction of environmental impact of logging activities and maintenance of the ecological functions and integrity of the forest

Principle 7. Appropriate and continuously updated management plan

Principle 8. Appropriate monitoring and assessment activities to assess the condition of the forest, management activities and their social and environmental impacts

Principle 9. Maintenance of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) defined as environmental and social values that are considered to be of outstanding significance or critical importance

Principle 10. In addition to compliance with all of the above, plantations must contribute to reduce the pressures on and promote the restoration and conservation of natural forests.

Paper Issues

Just one tonne of recycled paper saves approximately six mature trees and 3.3 yards³ of rapidly diminishing landfill space.

The pulp and paper industry is one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases. It uses vast amounts of water and energy and produces signficiant amounts of pollutants and landfill waste.

Recycled paper is the greenest option overall – it uses up waste paper and its production requires less energy and fewer chemical

Impact of paper on the environment

• It's energy intensive – The pulp and paper industry is the world’s fifth largest industrial consumer of energy, according to Worldwatch Institute. However, some producers use the by-products of the pulp production process as bio-fuel, virtually eliminating their carbon dioxide emissions.
• It uses huge amounts of water – but less if recycled within the factory.
• Coatings, fillers and optical brighteners eg. china clay, calcium carbonate, titanium and starch must be extracted, processed and transported, and all this requires energy. If these products are eventually recycled, the residue from the fillers and coatings is usually sent to landfill, although it's sometimes used as soil conditioner and occasionally even for road building.
• It generates large amounts of pollutants and waste – whilst waste treatment, especially in European mills, has improved in recent years, many mills still release a variety of pollutants into the surrounding air and water.
  
  Some of these are greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. Others can affect the more immediate surroundings that local people and wildlife rely on and contribute to air pollution, acid rain and the degradation of freshwater and marine ecosystems.
  
  The paper making process also generates large amounts of solid waste which must be disposed of, most notably the sludge from the fillers, coatings, wood fibres etc.

Why use recycled paper?

It uses less energy and creates fewer emissions than virgin paper

The process of felling trees, transporting them for processing, the pulping and manufacturing processes, and the distribution of the resulting paper uses a large amount of energy – mostly from fossil fuels. Recycled paper requires only a fraction of this processing, using between 28 and 70% less energy.

It supports UK recycling companies and provides a market for UK paper waste

Nearly all virgin fibre used in the UK is imported, and some waste paper exported, so it makes sense both environmentally and economically to support home-grown paper recycling schemes.

It reduces the amount of waste paper going to landfill

In the UK it is predicted that we will run out of landfill sites during the next decade. Landfills will be replaced by incinerators whose toxic fall-out has been proven to be harmful to human health.

In addition, as paper biodegrades it produces the greenhouse gas, methane.

What is recycled paper?

Superficially it’s quite straightforward: waste paper and board is collected, sorted and then purchased by paper mills to be re-used.

However, there are different definitions of ‘recycled’ within the industry – paper can be called ‘recycled’ when only a percentage of the fibre is actually recycled. There is also a big difference between post and pre-consumer recycled waste paper (see glossary). Look out for the percentage of post consumer recycled waste when choosing a paper.

Generally speaking, fibre for re-use is pulped, screened to remove unwanted items such as staples and adhesives, and de-inked – it may or may not then be re-bleached using hydrogen peroxide which is also used to bleach virgin fibre. The extent to which each of these processes is undertaken depends on the desired final product and the condition of the waste paper.

The quality of the original waste fibre will dictate how it is re-used – good quality white waste will be re-used in high quality recycled or part recycled papers; at the other extreme, low-grade recycled packaging will be re-used (again) for packaging materials.