of tissue paper per person per year, up from 37 pounds 20 years
ago, according to Conservatree, a former paper distribution
company that has converted to a nonprofit organization dedicated
to converting paper markets to environmental papers.
There aren’t many types of paper products that
individual consumers can directly influence, but building owners
and facilities managers have more say about the products they
purchase.
For example, the paper used for newspapers,
magazines, mailings, bills, and brochures are decided by
publishers, printers and others. It’s hard to influence them,
but everybody buys toilet paper and other
tissue
products, so consumers of these products do have a say in what
they buy and in how they’re made.
Reducing tissue use and choosing reusable
products — sponges and washable cloths instead of paper towels,
for example — are influential and positive environmental steps.
The water and energy used in household washing don’t come near
the amounts needed to continually make and distribute new
products, argues Conservatree. Still, even with reducing use,
virtually all North American households will buy some tissue
products.
One-third of the tissue market, however, is
‘away from home,’ the commercial and industrial settings such as
office and government buildings, hotels, schools, airports,
amusement parks, hospitals and highway rest stops where restroom
and kitchen facilities are not in a private home.
Most away from home tissue products are bought
directly from distributors, and they’re usually bulk-packaged
and often tied to specialized dispensers that encourage brand
loyalty. Competition usually revolves around price,
compatibility with dispensers, and ease of replenishment.
Increasingly, government agencies, college
campuses, school systems and hospitals, among others, are
specifying recycled content tissue and towels. In fact, the U.S.
federal government requires that any tissue products bought with
its funds, follow EPA guidelines and buy paper products with
minimum recovered fiber/postconsumer contents.
(Since many tissue products are available with
considerably higher recycled contents, purchasers should use
these only as a minimum guideline, advises Conservatree.)
Away from home tissue products meet this growing
environmental market by including at least some (often high)
recycled content in
more
than 70 percent of its tissue options.
In fact, most of the mills that make away from
home tissue products are capable of using recycled fiber.
Recycled content is a priority for
environmentally preferable tissue products, but reducing use is
even better for the environment.
Source reduction is at the top of the EPA’s
hierarchy of waste-reduction techniques because it reduces all
impacts of the material life cycle including supply chain, use,
recycling and waste disposal.
The commercial sector offers a number of options
for source reduction. “At many workplaces, paper towels are the
highest volume waste material produced in kitchen, restroom,
maintenance shop, and clean-up areas,” and it is safe to assume
that at least one type of tissue product — bathroom tissue,
facial tissue, paper napkins, and/or paper towels — is found in
most American workplaces and households. With such widespread
use of tissue products, buying processed chlorine-free tissue
products with higher levels of recycled content — preferably
postconsumer — can significantly reduce environmental impacts.
For example, more than half a million trees could be saved if
every household in the United States replaced just one roll of
100 percent virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100
percent recycled-content towels.
What could be more wasteful than using virgin
fiber to make janitorial paper products that are designed to be
thrown away after a single use? Green Seal suggests looking for
janitorial products with 100 percent recycled content and the
highest possible levels of postconsumer content.
Postconsumer fiber comes primarily from office
paper collection programs, paper that has been used by consumers
and then collected through recycling programs. Most janitorial
paper products — bathroom and facial tissues, paper towels, and
toilet seat covers — are available with postconsumer content,
and many have very high levels of postconsumer content. Using
recycled content janitorial paper products saves trees and keeps
waste paper out of landfills.
Additional benefits come from choosing paper
products made with less or no
chlorine. Bleaching (whitening) paper pulp with elemental
chlorine or chlorine compounds produces chlorinated pollutants,
such as dioxin, in the wastewater stream.
According to the Environmental Protection
Agency, dioxin “is a toxic industrial pollutant that is …
persistent in the environment. It accumulates in the fat tissue
of animals and humans and has been linked to adverse human
health effects, including cancer and toxicity to reproductive,
immunologic, and endocrine systems.”
Totally chlorine-free bleaching, which uses
alternative bleaching agents, such as oxygen and peroxide,
eliminates dioxins and other chlorinated pollutants from the
wastewater stream. In order to reduce potential risks, a number
of manufacturers are switching to chlorine-free technologies.
When buying janitorial paper products, choose
chlorine-free or less-chlorinated products by looking for the
following language on labels and in catalogs:
• “Unbleached”;
• “Bleached without chlorine or chlorine
derivatives”;
• “Totally chlorine-free” (TCF). This applies to
virgin paper fiber that is unbleached or processed without
chlorine or chlorine derivatives;
• “Processed chlorine-free” (PCF) applies to
recycled paper fiber that is unbleached or bleached without
chlorine or chlorine derivatives; however, since some of the
waste paper being recycled may previously have been bleached
with chlorine, recycled paper products labeled PCF cannot be
labeled TCF. If the final product contains any virgin fiber,
than that fiber must be TCF;
• “Elemental chlorine-free” (ECF) paper fiber is
bleached with chlorine derivatives that produce fewer dioxins
than elemental chlorine.
In papermaking, a fiber is a tiny threadlike
unit of vegetable growth. It is the main component of janitorial
paper products, and it can come from sources such as trees or
recovered paper.
Here is a hierarchy of fiber to consider,
starting with the most environmentally preferable fiber:
• Postconsumer fiber;
• Secondary fiber;
• Virgin fiber from sustainably harvested
non-old growth and non-endangered forests. Note: Whenever
possible, avoid janitorial paper products that contain any
virgin material.
The state of California
advises its purchasing agents to avoid janitorial paper products
that contain any virgin fiber, especially fiber from old growth
forests, endangered forests, and unsustainably harvested
forests.
These terms may be defined
differently by different parties, so to err on the safer side,
look for janitorial paper products that contain the highest
possible amount of recycled, preferably postconsumer, material.
Postconsumer material is a
low-risk fiber source. Also consider paper products for which
the content has been certified by an independent third party,
such as the Chlorine Free Products Association or the Forest
Stewardship Council.
Waste Prevention
