Love Paper Week - 3rd-7th February

‘Love Paper Week’ is a new global consumer awareness campaign launched by the not-for-profit organisation Two Sides UK. Its aim is to promote the sustainability of print, paper and paper packaging.

There is a common misconception that paper and cardboard packaging are bad for the environment. As consumers, we are constantly under pressure to ‘go paperless’ in the name of the environment, when in fact, it can simply be a means of cutting costs without offering much benefit to the environment at all. You may be surprised to learn that paper and cardboard are actually among the most sustainable man-made products on Earth!

Paper is a prime example of the ‘circular economy’, the business model of ‘make, use, recycle, reuse’. According to figures from CEPI (Confederation of European Paper Industries), an impressive 79% of paper and 83% of paper packaging gets recycled, making it one of the most sustainable and recycled materials in the world. The cross-industry alliance ‘4EverGreen’ aims to go even further and raise the recycling rate of fibre-based packaging to an incredible 90% by the year 2030.

In Europe, most paper and wood comes from sustainably managed forests, meaning that the perpetual cycle of planting, growing and felling is tightly monitored. According to EU Greensource 2023, forests currently cover 40% of the European territory and is growing by 2% per year, once the volume of harvested forests has been deducted. According to Two Sides Analysis of FAO data, in the sixteen years 2005-2020, European forests grew by an impressive 58,390 square kilometres - that’s an area bigger than the size of Switzerland!

Of course, we cannot overlook the grim fact that deforestation is happening, but according to the WWF, this is more the result of intensive agriculture and forest fires than from the production of paper. ‘Planted forests’ offer many benefits to society such as livelihoods and biodiversity as well as helping to tackle climate change.

Paper can be recycled 5-7 times before the long fibres within its structure become too short to be reused any more. It is only then that virgin fibres are required to maintain the paper cycle. Even in the production stage, most of the energy used to make paper is renewable, which in turn delivers a low carbon footprint. Although paper production relies on water, relatively little is actually consumed.

As a print company leading the way in green industry, TPM (UK) Limited is committed to supporting the new ‘Love Paper Week’ campaign. TPM actively recycles all production materials used - not just paper! The net result is a very small Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon footprint. Carbon-offsetting schemes then reduce the company’s small carbon footprint down to net zero!

Two Sides UK hopes that its ‘Love Paper’ initiative will help consumers to gain a better understanding of paper’s environmental credentials whilst busting some of the myths and preconceptions that have needlessly discredited the industry. In today’s digital world, paper remains unique in its ability to touch our lives. Add to this an inherent sustainability, and it is no surprise that paper is set to remain an essential medium of communication for generations to come.

Details of Love Paper Week can be found at https://lovepaper.org