What is paper made of? It is mainly composed of cellulose fibres. The cellulose fibres are mainly from wood pulp but can also be derived from cotton, straw, hemp and other natural plant fibres.

Despite the increased use of computers and more online work, news, e-books and email, the amount of paper produced and consumed has increased. While it is true that most wood pulp sourced for paper comes from ‘well-managed forests’, some wood pulp comes from the cutting and clearing of older forests including rainforest.

Although ‘well-managed forests’ are replanted, they might not be so great from a biodiversity perspective. The original forest of the area may be slow-growing but rich in a variety of flora and fauna, but often the replacement ‘well-managed’ forest is largely a monoculture of fast-growing species selected principally for economic reasons.

The alternative to paper using virgin wood pulp is to choose recycled paper.

One of the most comprehensive environmental impact studies of recycled paper versus standard paper was published by IFEU and this reveals that on every level (energy, emissions, water usage, biodiversity loss, etc) recycled paper is the better option.

And if you find that there is a small price increase for recycled paper, this can often be managed by a little more effort in reducing the amount of paper that is consumed in the first place: reduced size print runs, printing on demand, double-sided printing, and so on.

Some companies may specify the environmental benefit of their recycled paper on the packaging. Or you could look at this useful comparison tool which gives, for 500 sheets (one ream), the following:

Category	Standard paper	Recycled paper	Saving
Wood pulp	5,4 kg	0 kg	100%
Water	125 litres	25,6 litres	79%
Energy	32,4 kWh	8,7 kWh	73%
CO2 equivalent emissions	2,4 kgCO2e	1,4 kgCO2e	42%

Do you or does your organization have a recycled paper purchasing policy and what paper conservation ideas do you use that you would like to share?