Wales Environment Trust

The pulp and paper industry is an ideal candidate for study due to its economic and social significance. Paper products are used to communicate ideas, to inform and instruct, and to record events and cultural information. They also play a key role in human health, in the form of food packaging, medical dressings and sanitary products.

Currently the world's annual paper consumption is in the order of 370 million tonnes, over the past three decades, the world's paper consumption has tripled. The UK is the fifth highest consumer of paper in the world every year more than 12 million tonnes of paper and card are consumed in the UK 2.2 million tonnes of this was used as newsprint alone. In the UK alone over 6 million tonnes of paper and card are only used once.

Most of this paper comes from Scandinavia (7.7 million tonnes was imported in 2000). In order to satisfy the demand for wood and paper products, the majority of the natural Boreal forest in Scandinavia has been converted into intensively managed secondary forest or plantations. About 5% of Scandinavian old-growth forest remains, and yet this is still being logged.

Recycling of fibre is generally considered to be the priority and best practicable environmental option. Most recovered paper is used to manufacture packaging and comes from retailers (1.6-million tonnes) and once read newspapers and magazines (1.25-million tonnes).

Recycling paper is a much healthier method of disposal as decomposing paper left in landfill sites releases high methane emissions. It takes 50 years for cardboard to break down naturally. (BBC 2002.)

Recycling recovered paper has its own problems; collection and sorting is very costly and sales revenues are low, collection costs have been better in recent years while landfill and incineration have been getting more expensive. Prices of recovered paper increased in the mid 90's making recycling appear more attractive, but the prices have now fallen again and it remains to be seen whether the financial viability of paper recycling can be sustained.

Email: info@walesenvtrust.org.uk