Following the paper trail

Abstract

When you opened this issue of Frontiers, did you notice anything different? Hopefully not, although there has been an important change. This month, we have switched to printing the journal on 100% recycled, 10% post-consumer waste, acid-free, processed chlorine-free paper. Our new paper is manufactured by a small paper mill, American Eagle, which makes only recycled papers. The recycled material can be anything from Starbucks coffee cups and old magazines to cardboard cake boxes, and almost nothing goes to waste. After a very thorough washing, the cleaned fiber is processed into new paper, the polyethylene from the coffee cups goes on to become decking material, and the residual sludge, consisting of left-over fiber, ink, calcium carbonate, and clay, can be used as mulch. Standard paper-making uses huge amounts of wood, water, and energy, and causes the destruction of forests and loss of biodiversity. Paper mills discharge greenhouse gases into the air and organic and nutrient pollution, including phosphorus, dioxins, and endocrine disruptors, into rivers. The final product constitutes 40% of what goes into landfill sites and 80% of what is put out as trash by the average household. “Recycled paper” is usually made of wood fiber mixed with one of two types of paper: pre-consumer (eg scraps and trimmings, printer's off-cuts, and rejected or excess stocks) or post-consumer (where the paper has reached the consumer, served its intended purpose, and then been recycled). The more paper is recycled, the less there is to go into landfill sites; recycled pulp also requires less processing than virgin (wood) fiber pulp and therefore saves water and energy, as well as resulting in fewer emissions and less wastewater. Since the journal was first launched, in 2003, a number of ESA members have emailed me, asking what type of paper we use for Frontiers; in fact, our previous paper did include 10% recycled content, but this seemed hardly something to boast about. Some also expressed concern regarding the “glossiness” of the cover; the cover already uses a 50% recycled, 15% post-consumer sheet, treated with an aqueous glaze, and is therefore also fully recyclable. Despite predictions about the paperless office, and the rising trend in online-only journals, we are still using an awful lot of paper, and since over 90% of printing and writing papers are currently made of 100% virgin wood fiber, that means an awful lot of trees. According to Frank Locantore, Director of Coop America's Woodwise Program, magazine printing in the US alone consumes 35 million trees a year, with a publisher such as National Geographic using the equivalent of over 425 000 trees a year for their five publications. By comparison, Frontiers' footprint is relatively small. With a print run of about 9000 copies per issue (56 pages, 10 issues per year), the journal requires just over 32 tons of paper annually, the equivalent of about 630 trees. The other ESA journals, Ecology, Ecological Applications, and Ecological Monographs, are already printed on a 50% de-inked, recycled, 30% post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free paper, but this particular sheet was unsuitable for a journal like Frontiers, that contains many color photos and graphics. Some ESA members were also worried about the polybags in which the journals arrive. Polybags can be recycled together with plastic supermarket bags, provided there is a recycling scheme in the area, which is not always the case. However, the journals have to be wrapped in something if they are not to arrive dirty, torn, or soaking wet, from their passage through the postal system. So which is best, paper or plastic? When it comes to landfill issues, both are problematic, but one argument is that plastic is lighter, and therefore uses less energy and so is cheaper to transport, does not require yet more trees to be felled, and can itself be made of recycled materials. Happily, there have been recent signs of changing attitudes to recycled paper among paper manufacturers and paper users alike. The number of high-quality recycled papers on the market is increasing, and, through the work of organizations such as the Green Press Initiative, Conservatree, and the Rainforest Alliance, a number of publishers and corporations have instituted more environmentally friendly paper-buying practices. And Frontiers can claim its own small part in this trend: since paper is usually bought by the truckload, and since our own requirements are considerably less than this, our printer, Allen Press, has agreed to replace one of its non-recycled paper stocks with our new paper. In compliance with the three Rs (reduce, recycle, and reuse), we have finally managed to reduce the number of trees we use – the rest is up to you. Dr Sue Silver, Editor-in-Chief