High Cost of Post Consumer Recycled Paper

How much more does 100% post-consumer recycled paper cost? Earlier this month, Green Cities California -- which includes L.A. and 10 California cities and counties -- pledged to make a complete switch to 100% post-consumer recycled copy paper -- though with no set date for finalizing the switch. I'm support the initiative, but I started wondering what the financial implications of this green decision would be.

After all, even though making post-consumer recycled paper doesn't kill trees and saves lots of energy, the eco-friendly paper market still hasn't reached the scale to make it cost-competitive with virgin paper, as I found out the hard way through my research on green business cards.

Santa Monica couldn't tell me how much more the switch to 100% post-consumer recycled paper cost the city, partly because they made the switch back in 2004. Getting an accurate number would mean accounting for inflation, paper use reduction programs, structural changes in the city, etc., making calculations difficult.

Luckily -- at least for this numbers-crunching mission -- the city of L.A. hasn't made a full switch yet. Only 30% of the paper the city of L.A. uses is 100% post-consumer recycled. So I was able to find out what the cost difference of switching the rest of that paper would be from Gerald St.Onge, who does environmentally preferred purchasing for the city L.A.

St.Onge said that 100% post-consumer recycled paper would cost about 50% more than virgin paper. In fact, the reason L.A. hasn't gone all post-consumer recycled already is due to budgetary reasons -- not due to lack of availability, the reason Shannon Parry, an environment analyst for Santa Monica's Environmental Programs Division, pointed to.

"Right now we're tying to [make up] the difference in cost by paper reduction," St.Onge said. The higher cost of 100% post-consumer recycled paper is a bit of a chicken or the egg problem. Due to the added expense, government agencies, companies, and individuals don't buy more of it. But because not enough of it is bought, the recycled paper market doesn't grow as fast in scale to bring down those prices.

Although the city of L.A. hasn't set a deadline to complete the switch too all post-consumer recycled paper, Onge said "we're committed and we're doing everything we can to change all the commodities that are being purchased into environmentally-friendly products." There's reason to be hopeful: Along with the Green Cities California initiatives, L.A. City Council approved an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing statement and program last month, committing the city to opting for eco-friendly products whenever possible.

via LA Times Blog

Wal-Mart Buying Illegal Russian Timber for Products Sold in US Market

US based retail giant Wal-Mart is the subject of a detailed and lengthy report released earlier this month by environmental watchdog group The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The report alleges numerous Chinese companies producing wood furniture including baby cribs for Wal-Mart are buying illegally harvested Russian timber that is destroying critical forest habitats.

The report includes multiple undercover investigations where EIA staff posed as timber buyers and company representatives looking for a manufacturer for their products. They approached companies actively producing products for Wal-Mart for the US market and found nearly all of the wood used in production was from illegal Russian sources.

The report claims companies producing products for Wal-Mart say the retail giant is aware of the source but turns a blind eye in favor of reducing production costs. By not taking any substantive action to address the problem Wal-Mart is indirectly encouraging the practice to continue.

The EIA report can be downloaded here.

Sears Sharper Image Spiegel Top Forest Naughty List

Forest Ethics and its Catalog Cutdown campaign have released its annual Naughty and Nice list which grades catalog senders on environmental paper practices.

Chicago-based Sears Holdings Corporation, with catalog offerings including Sears, Lands’ End and the recently acquired K-Mart, ranks among the top catalog producers in North America. Forest Ethics says that the catalogs are made up of trees cut from endangered forests and have “little to no recycled content.”

The group has had a number of successful campaigns against catalog companies. Limited Brands (parent company of Victoria’s Secret, Express, Bath & Body Works, and The Limited), for example, signed a new forest policy following a long Forest Ethics’ campaign.

In its Naughty and Nice list, 21 companies were evaluated according to four criteria: whether or not endangered forests are cut to produce the company’s catalogs; whether the company uses Forest Stewardship Council Certified paper; the amount of post-consumer recycled content in the company’s catalogs; and the extent of the company’s efforts to reduce overall paper consumption.

Patagonia, Williams-Sonoma, Victoria’s Secret (see link above), Dell, Timberland, Crate & Barrel, REI, L.L. Bean, and J. Crew ended up on the nice list.

JC Penney, Macy’s/Bloomingdales, and PC Mall made the checking twice list.

Neiman Marcus, Talbots/J. Jill, OfficeMax, Lands’ End, Eddie Bauer, School Specialty, Sharper Image, Spiegel, and Sears follow up on the naughty list.

Recycline Adds Paperstone Cutting Boards to Product Line

Massachusetts-based Recycline, makers of the Preserve brand of environmentally friendly products mostly made from #5 PP, the company has added two new cutting boards made from Paperstone to its Preserve Kitchen product line.

Paperstone is a material that has been used in green countertops for several years now. "We were also curious to explore a new material and developed a cutting board from Paperstone," said Webb.

The Paperstone cutting boards are available directly from Recycline or at Whole Foods Market in two sizes and are both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and RainForest Alliance certified made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Simon and Schuster Greenwashing

A big round of applause to publishing giant Simon and Schuster for their new Paper Policy announced last week.

"Simon and Schuster, Inc., and its employees are committed to publishing in a manner that both respects the environment and helps to preserve the world’s great forest regions for the use and pleasure of future generations."

Sounds great right? Well lets look at some of the steps the company is going to take to fulfill this excellent vision of theirs.

1) For books printed and bound in the United States, Simon and Schuster will endeavor to eliminate (what does this mean????) the use of paper that may contain fiber from endangered and old-growth forest areas. Oh wow thats big of you. Most companies stopped that years ago. Thank you so much!!!!

2) Will increase use of recycled fiber from 10% to 25% or "greater aggregate level" by 2012 - wow excellent.

3) This is the best one: "Where economically practical and subject to its availability and Simon and Schuster's product mix " Simon and Schuster will "endeavor to have at least 10% of its paper Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified by 2012" - this is my favorite of all of their steps towards their grand goal. Lets break this down - ok, so if they can fulfill the three conditions they set on this statement then they'll increase their use of FSC paper to 10% - wow. Give me a break guys.

Their list of steps goes on and on you can read it for yourself here.

Just a tip for Simon and Schuster's future "endeavors" in greenness - guys your steps for improving shouldn't read like a legal document. You can't set conditions on your environmental policy otherwise it becomes meaningless. This is a joke. Work out a policy you can live with, without all the conditions.