Paper and Cardboard Fact Sheet November 2017

Paper and Cardboard Despite the rapid development of electronic communication systems, demand for paper products is still growing. In 2012-2013, Australians consumed 3,672,000 tonnes of paper with only 45% 8 rate . This consumption costs millions of trees - one great reason to recycle

The Problem

Paper is one of the most important and Water Did you know? widely used consumer materials with To make just one tonne of paper out of an endless ability to be transformed. virgin material over 90,000 litres of  Each tonne of paper that is precious water are used which will fill recycled saves: almost 13 If it is writing paper, paper used for 450 rain barrels.¹ trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, 4100 printing, magazines, newspapers, kWh of electricity, 4 cubic cardboard or packaging paper all of Greenhouse gas emissions metres of and 31, 780 them are made out of a valuable When paper goes to landfill it produces litres of water.2 resource and should be recycled for dangerous greenhouse gases during reuse. decomposition. But already the  By recycling paper and

production of paper emits 1.46 tonnes of cardboard 51% of the greenhouse gases per tonne of paper environmental impact of using How is paper made? 4 produced. virgin material can be saved .1 The basic paper making process has not changed for 2000 years. Fibres are The average office worker bins around  17 trees can absorb the made out of wood and, soaked in 50 kg of high-grade paper a year, a carbon dioxide emitted from liquid, drained on a fine wire screen staggering 10,000 sheets of A4. your car each year, trapping

and then dried under pressure and the carbon in the wood and 6 Landfill space heat. releasing the oxygen back into 1 Australians send 1.9 million tonnes of 5 our atmosphere. paper to landfill each year and most of Impact of paper on the it can be recycled. Newspaper is the  All newspaper manufactured most abundant paper waste, followed by environment in Australia have a recycled cardboard and magazine/advertising content of up to 40%.2 Production material. All this waste fills up our landfill Modern paper production involves space, space we are fast running out of. mechanical, chemical - or a combination of both - pulping to Rubbish convert raw materials into various In 2014, paper and cardboard items paper products. These processes accounted for 13% of the total rubbish consume large amounts of energy and collected on Clean Up Australia Day. use valuable natural resources, Every Australian office worker uses including trees and water. Certain about 10,000 sheets of A4 paper each year, with approximately 50% of this processing techniques such as 7 bleaching are also known to be going straight to landfill. environmentally harmful.

Trees Trees are the main resource in the paper production, a tonne of paper consumes approximately 20 full-grown trees while recycling 1 tonne of paper saves 13 trees1.

Clean Up Australia Ltd ABN 93 003 884 991, 193 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia tel: 1800 CUA DAY email: [email protected] web: www.cleanup.org.au Clean Up Australia Limited ABN 93 003 884 991

Paper and Cardboard Fact Sheet November 2017

Paper and Cardboard

The Solution

Paper recycling Recycle References (Hyperlinks) Making paper from virgin materials  Support recycling programs by requires not just more energy and buying recycled paper and 1) VISY Recycling resources but also chemical pre- cardboard products 2) Publishers National Environment treatment. Recycling paper will  Set up a container for paper Bureau contribute to sustainable resource recycling at home, the office or at

usage and reduce the amount of school, especially next to 3) - SA waste to landfill. photocopiers or printers  Contact your council for 4) Aust Plantation Products & Paper can be successfully recycled information on your local paper- Paper Industry Council back into a variety of day to day recycling scheme. products such as newspaper, office 5) Aust Govt - Dept of the paper, packaging and cardboard. Buy Recycled Environment & Energy Before it reaches the limit of its useful When we 'buy recycled' we are life paper can be recycled many times. increasing the demand for recycled 6) Paper Industry / Paper Making content products and encouraging the Process What can I do? manufacture of recycled products, rather than products made from virgin 7) Veolia There are different steps you can get materials. 8) Conservatree - involved in: Follow the well-known reduce, reuse & recycle principle and Advice/Leadership on Paper when shopping, keep your eye out for Materials that can be recycled Choices products made from recycled paper. Cardboard boxes Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Newspapers, magazines and brochures Protect our environment by reducing, Photocopy paper and wrappers reusing and recycling paper and cardboard, Computer printouts

Reduce Envelopes (even those with windows)  Send e-mail instead of Manila folders distributing printed documents  Minimise printing and use double Phone books

sided copying where possible  Ask to be removed from junk mail lists and place a 'No Junk Mail' sign Materials that can’t be recycled  Avoid buying goods which use Remove staples, string, excessive packaging. Carbon and self carbonised paper paper clips, metal foil,

Reuse sticky tape, food BuyFacial Recycled tissues and paper towels remnants and dirt from  Use unwanted printouts as When we 'buy recycled' we are notepaper Sticky tape and adhesive labels paper before recycling it. increasing the demand for recycled  Reuse gift-wrapping paper, Tissuecontent paper products and encouraging the paper bags, paper boxes manufacture of recycled products, rather  Use shredded paper as thanWax orproducts plastic coated made boxesfrom virginor paper

packaging Thermalmaterials. fax paper  Sell old books and magazines to second hand dealers, or donate them to libraries or charities.

Clean Up Australia Ltd ABN 93 003 884 991, 193 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia

tel: 1800 CUA DAY email: [email protected] web: www.cleanup.org.au Clean Up Australia Limited ABN 93 003 884 991 Buy Recycled