Monday 3rd February marks the start of Love Paper Week! Rollmark is proud to be a member of Two Sides who run the Love Paper Campaign, striving to bust the myths around paper, put an end to greenwashing and fly the flag for the environment and the print industry.
Paper is based on wood, a natural and renewable material. Paper is one of the most recycled products in the world and epitomises the circular economy model of make, use, recycle and reuse.
In Europe, where almost all primary forests are protected, paper comes from sustainably managed forests where the cycle of planting, growing and logging is carefully controlled. Forests cover 40% of the European territory and are growing in both area and volume.
Paper plays a vital role in learning and development. A study involving millions of high school students in 36 countries found that those who use computers heavily at school “do a lot worse in most learning outcomes, even after accounting for social background and student demographics”.
Demand for Sustainable packaging has never been greater. Paper packaging is not only the most recycled packaging in Europe (84%), it also utilises an exceptionally high amount of recycled material in its production.
Even with such a high recycling rate, the fibre-based packaging value chain remains focused on improving this further.
“Go Paperless”, “Go Green” and “Save Trees” are common messages as many organisations encourage their customers to switch to electronic communications. But these appeals are not based on fact. These sorts of messages give the impression that electronic communication is more environmentally friendly than paper-based. It is very difficult to make such statements without considering the full lifetime of those different mediums. Paper is a uniquely renewable and sustainable product. The main raw material, wood, is grown and harvested in a carefully controlled, sustainable way – so sustainable in fact that European forests, where most of the raw material comes from, have grown by an area the size of Switzerland in just 15 years.
Spread the word! Love Paper!
https://lovepaper.org/lovepaperweek