Newsletter
| June 2007 Greening up your marketing materials part 2 Why is it we still write on Trees?! In business we try to economize our resources of time, energy and materials to maximize profit. Why then, do we use trees for paper? This is a question I've wondered about for years. Wood fiber paper may be cheap to produce in the short term, but ultimately it carries a big cost in the amount of time, resources and energy to produce. From the growing, to harvesting to processing the cost of making paper can't stand up to the cost of making paper from other fibers. And this isn't even getting into the environmental cost of deforestation, erosion, species endangerment, air and water contamination. Of course it's easy to say that trees are a renewable resource because you can grow them in the ground, take one out and plant another one to replace it. But, a lot of time, energy and materials goes into growing trees that might be better used elsewhere in either recycled fibers or something altogether different. Why not use fibers from plants that require much less time, energy and materials to grow? Traditional materials coming back When the United States was a young country, two of the biggest crops were hemp and flax. These crops made up a large percentage of the economy and had both agricultural and industrial uses. Today they are either maligned because of their illegal relatives or have taken a back seat to other crops like cotton. Industrial hemp is one of the strongest fibers in the world. It produces a high quality fiber that can be used by itself or blended with post consumer waste to make a better, stronger recycled paper. Hemp produces a high yield of material per acre. It also can be used as a great rotational crop in some areas giving farmers another crop to grow to keep their fields healthy. Flax produces linen, linseed oil and requires less water to grow than cotton. Flax has been grown in nearly every state in the U.S. Like hemp, it can produce cloth as well as paper. Flax is the reason currency is so durable and tea bags so practical. It's also a beautiful plant and varieties have been introduced to gardens for non-commercial uses. New materials introduced Ever hear of bagasse or kenaf? I hadn't either until the last couple of years. Bagasse is the "waste" product from sugar cane production. It's already used for paper towels and costs less than hard wood pulp. Lately, I've seen it used for hot cups (for coffee), clam shell containers and paper plates. Neenah paper company produces office-quality paper from it. Kenaf (rhymes with giraffe) is an African plant that can out produce southern pine plantation in useable fiber by two to three times. Kenaf grows fast in climates where cotton is grown but flax cannot. It produces less lignin than wood fiber which makes it less acidic and requires less energy and fewer harmful chemicals to prepare the pulp for paper. Currently you can buy Kenaf-based paper through a large office supply company but the content is very low in Kenaf fibers. Other alternatives out there Bananas I recently bought a spiral bound notebook made from banana fibers mixed with recycled paper content. The paper is made using the stem called a pinzote. Banana production creates a great deal of agricultural waste through discarded pinzotes. The paper made from pinzotes is mostly used for childrens notebooks and text books. The notebook I bought was marketed to school children, but the paper is great. Bamboo This fiber seems to be the rock star of the green movement. Bamboo is being used for everything from flooring, to kitchen cutting boards to clothing. It can of course also be used for paper. And why not, bamboo is a fast growing relative to grass that produces high-qualtiy fiber with a high yield per acre. Haven't seen or heard of this stuff? I look around, and it is hard to find alternatives to wood fiber paper in a retail setting. The important thing is to ask for these products. Ask your designer, printer, paper supplier or office supply company. Check out these resources for more information: Costa Rica Natural paper: banana fiber paper, cigar paper, coffee paper. www.ecopaper.com Crane & Company: hemp, flax, kenaf and various reused fibers. www.crane.com Domtar: bagas, hemp. www.domtar.com EcoSource: fax, hemp. www.islandnet.com/~ecodette/ecosource.htm Greenfield paper: hemp, paper with seeds embedded. www.greenfieldpaper.com Living Tree Paper Co.: hemp. www.livingtreepaper.com Vision Paper Co.: kenaf. www.visionpaper.com At Pylon Studios we always use digital, recycled or non-tree materials. Call us @ 415 775-4126 for your marketing collateral with a smaller footprint or go to our web site for more information. For this email I used information from "Guide to Tree-Free Recycled and Certified Papers" by Dan Imhoff, info@simplelife.com ISBN 0-9673788-0-X. Back to the Newsletter page Sign up to get your copy of the Pylon Page |
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