April 15, 2008 | Filed under: Paper's Problem by admin | No Comments »

Paper is only one part of what makes a document; the ink with which the text is written can have harmful impacts as well. While not evaluated as extensively as the pulp manufacture industry, the components, manufacture, and application of printing cartridges also form a negative life-cycle.

Ink consists of pigment particles suspended in an easy-to-apply solution. Sometimes the inks contain heavy metals like barium, copper, and zinc which are not easily decomposed and can contaminate groundwater (1 ). To hold the color, petroleum-based solvents are frequently used. Additional ingredients include pH modifiers (to make the ink more alkaline), biocides (chemicals to literally “kill life,” preventing fungal and bacterial growth), and various other chemicals that better convey ink from the cartridge to the paper. During the recycling process, in which paper must be de-inked, these compounds create hazardous waste. (2)

Production of each toner cartridge consumes about 3 quarts of oil (3). These non-renewable resources are applied towards ozone-damaging distillates that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other gases that contribute to smog, acid rain, and global warming (4). Ink is housed in a metal-and-plastic container that weighs about three pounds. They’re made to last; the engineering-grade polymers take at least 1,000 years to decompose (5). Much wastewater and solid waste are produced in these facilities. To learn more about the specific impacts of the product you use, please check out Xerox’s Sustainability Calculator.

The negative impacts of printing extend to the office. While pulp production is responsible for most of paper’s energy consumption, about one-tenth of the energy each document consumes is related to printing from an office machine (6). Moreover, employees are exposed to cancer-causing emissions when toners are heated in the print process (7). Most cartridges are not recycled. In North America alone, over 350 million cartridges per year are discarded in our landfills, and that amount rises 12 percent each year. Together, all of the discarded inkjet and laser cartridges would more than fill the Grand Canyon (8). Of course, the costs are not strictly environmental; any opportunity to reduce ink consumption also decreases office expenditures.

CITATIONS

(1)Monadnock Paper Mills. Inc. A Field Guide: Eco-Friendly, Efficient, and Effective Print. Bennington, New Hampshire; Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc., 2007. http://www.mpm.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32&

(2) Kungjappu, Joy T. “Ink Chemistry.” chembytes e-zine, March 2003. http://www.chemsoc.org/chembytes/ezine/2003/kunjappu_mar03.htm

(3) State of California. “Office Machines - Toner and Inket Cartridges.” Environmentally Preferable Best Practices Manual http://www.green.ca.gov/EPP/OfficeMach/toner.htm

(4) Sollars, John. “How Chemical Toners Give Laser Printers a Nearly Photo Quality.” http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Chemical-Toners-Give-Laser-Prints-A-Nearly-Photo-Quality&id=1050880

(5) Alameda County Waste Management Authority, Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board. “Remanufactured Toner Cartridges in Alameda County Fact Sheet.” May 2004 <www.stopwaste.org/docs/toner.pdf>

(6) Xerox. Xerox Global Citizenship Report 2007. <http://www.xerox.com/downloads/usa/en/x/Xerox_Global_Citizenship_Report_2007.PDF>

(7) Wolkoff, P., Wilkins, C.K., Clausen, P.A., and Larsen, K. Comparison of Volatile Organic Compounds from Processed Paper and Toners. Indoor Air 1993 3:113-123, 1993
(8) Chesapeake Cartridge Company. “Chesapeake Cartridge Company - Recycle.” <http://www.chesapeakecartridgecompany.com/recycle.html>

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Chemicals

The pulp and paper industry ranks fourth among industrial sectors in emissions of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals to water, and third in such releases to air. (1)

These chemicals concentrate in the food chain as they are consumed by humans. (2)

Water

Water pollution suffocates fish, carries heavy metals, and smothers bottom-dwelling plants (3).

We may never completely understand of the individual toxicity of the hundreds of compounds in mill effluent, let alone their effects as a mixture. For example, of the 70,000 chemicals currently sold on the market, adequate toxicological data are available for about 10 to 20%. (4)

Solid Waste
Sludge is produced by every component of the pulp process, which, because of different disposal methods, pollute soil, air, and water. (5)

Air
The pulp and paper industry is the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases among manufacturing industries. (6, 7)

CITATIONS

(1) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. TRI Explorer , 2006. http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer

(3) World Health Organization. “Dioxins and their Effects on Human Health.” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/index.html

(3) United States Environmental Protection Agency. Monitoring and Assessing Water Quality. http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/stream/vms52.html, 2006

(4) NTP Invites Chemical Nominations, Environmental Health Perspectives. 102:11, 1994.

(5) “Pulp and Paper Production Basics.” Reach for Unbleached Foundation, 2005. <http://www.rfu.org/cacw/basic.html>

(6) United States Energy Information Administration. Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey. 2002. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiency/carbon_emissions/carbon_mfg.html#figure_1.

(7) Martin, N., N. Anglani, D. Einstein, M. Khrushch, E.Worrell, and L.K. Price. Opportunities to Improve Energy Efficiency and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the U.S. Pulp and Paper Industry. Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, July 2000. http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/servlets/purl/767608-u2AeNa/native/767608.pdf

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The supply chain of the pulp manufacturing sector is one of the most resource-intensive of any industry.

Trees

Two out of every five trees cut in the world today are pulped for paper. (1)
Natural Forests

• Old growth forests worldwide are being logged for paper, with 9% of fiber derived from old-growth trees. (1)
• Logging causes habitat loss, soil erosion, and decreased water quality. (2)
• Trees store half the terrestrial carbon (7). Moreover, half the world’s forests have already been burned or cleared, and 80% of the remaining forests have been degraded. (3).

Tree Farms

• An area roughly equivalent to the size of Los Angeles, or about 333,600 acres (135,000 hectares), is converted to pine plantations each year in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi (4)
• Tree farms support 90% fewer species than the naturally occurring forests that preceded them. (5)
• Pine plantations do not retain carbon as efficiently as hardwood or natural pine forest. The increase in the number of pine plantations in the southern United States will likely contribute to more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in our atmosphere. (4)

Recycled Content

Even recycling paper requires significant processing, including shipping, sorting, de-inking, shredding, and bleaching. (2)

Water

Paper mills can contribute to water scarcity, and the withdrawal and return of large quantities of water can negatively affect aquatic ecology (6) Mill owners say they are unable to institute water conservation and recycling because the concentrated effluent would kill fish. (7)

Energy

Producing paper uses 11.5 percent of all energy in the industrial sector. Paper production is the third most energy-intensive of all U.S. manufacturing industries. (8)

Chemicals

Vast amounts of hazardous chemicals are required to prepare wood or recycled material for processing into paper. (2)

Kraft pulping, from which printing and copy paper comes from, uses less than 30% of the tree. The rest ends up as sludge which is burned, spread on land or landfilled. (2)

The paper industry is responsible for the release of persistent toxic pollutants like chlorine, mercury, lead and phosphorus into the environment, resulting in a legacy of health problems including cancers, nerve disorders and fertility problems. (9)

CITATIONS

(1) Wood Resources International, Ltd. Fiber Sourcing Analysis for the Global Pulp and Paper Industry . London: IIED, September 1996

(2) The Paper Task Force. White Paper No. 10A: Environmental Comparison—Manufacturing Technologies for Virgin and Recycled-Content Printing and Writing Paper. Environmental Defense: December 19, 1995. <http://www.environmentalpaper.com/documents/StateOfPaperIndSm.pdf>

(3) Bryant,D., D. Nielsen and L. Tangley. The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge. World Resources Institute, 1997. <www.globalforestwatch.org/english/pdfs/Last_Frontier_Forests.pdf>

(4) Songhen, Brent, Ohio State University and Brown, Sandra. “The Influence of Conversion of Forest Types on Carbon Sequestration and Other Ecosystem Services in the South Central United States.” Winrock International, December 15th 2004.

(5) Williams, Ted. 2000. “False Forests.” Mother Jones, May/June. <http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/05/false_forests.html>

(6) Freeman, Mary C. “Effects of Surface Water Withdrawals and Reservoirs on Stream Fishes in the Georgia Piedmont.” Proceedings of the 2005 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 25-27, 2005. http://www.uga.edu/water/GWRC/Papers/freemanm_GWRCpaper1.pdf

(7) British Columbia COFI Pollution Prevention Workshop, June 1997, Environment Canada PPER Consultations, June 2000

(8) United States Department of Energy. “Forest Products: Industry of the Future.” Annual Report Fiscal Year 2004. Washington, D.C.: Industrial Technologies Program, 2005. <http://www.eere.energy.gov/industry/about/pdfs/forest_fy2004.pdf>

(9) “Making Paper as if the Earth Matters.” Reach for Unbleached Foundation, 2005. <http://www.rfu.org/navigation/Librarydocs/MakingPaper.pdf>

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March 8, 2008 | Filed under: Paper's Problem by admin | Comments Off

We use paper on a daily basis and often do not think about where it came from, how it was made, or where it will end up after we are finished with it. It can be pretty useful stuff and we here at Cleaner Commerce would never suggest giving it up altogether, but too often paper is spat out of a fax or printer and moments later discarded.

Better businesses evaluate their operations for optimal resource use, and eliminating waste to increase productivity is both economically and environmentally beneficial. By taking paper-saving steps around the office and implementing E-Commerce solutions that eliminate the need to fax or mail business documents, you can be part of the solution.

First, allow us to show you the environmental impacts caused by creating, using and disposing of paper: