Eco-Friendly Paper

Are you looking for more eco-friendly paper products? The following article offers several companies and products to meet your needs.

Eco-Friendly Paper
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Safeguarding the Earth's natural resources is an issue of gargantuan proportions, especially for the health and prosperity of our planet. In an effort to protect and preserve what God gave us, North American paper manufacturers have incorporated environmental initiatives into every part of their operations. From forestry management and habitat restoration, to reducing greenhouse emissions and protecting water quality, the business of making paper has changed dramatically in the past decade. Today commercial printers can choose from a huge variety of recycled papers that offer 15- to 100-percent post consumer waste (PCW), and are produced using a chlorine-free process without sacrificing the quality of a client's work. Following is a sampling of what's available in the market.
Cascades
(www.environmentalbychoice.com, www.cascades.com)
Cascades offers Rolland Enviro100 Print and Rolland Inspiration Ecofibre as its best ecological choices for the commercial printing industry. They are designed for annual reports, brochures, mass mailing, and promotional pieces that need an ecological touch.
The papers offer a smooth finish that prints as good as regular opaque, allows the richness of color to stand out, are an ecological alternative to regular offset and opaque papers, and are offered in text and cover weights. The papers contain 100-percent post-consumer (PC) fiber, are certified EcoLogo and processed chlorine free, are certified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Recycled, and manufactured using biogas energy.
Domtar
(www.domtar.com)
Domtar EarthChoice is a unique and extensive line of high-quality, environmental papers that go well beyond conventional recycled paper to also address the key issue of sustainability.
EarthChoice is FSC-certified, endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance, and approved by World Wildlife Fund Canada and ForestEthics.
The new guidebook Giving Wings to Sustainability explains how Domtar EarthChoice addresses vital environmental issues. The high quality of the line makes it easy for companies, printers, and designers to do the right thing for current and future generations. Thirteen products in the EarthChoice line feature both coated and uncoated stock, with more than 700 options. According to Domtar, EarthChoice excels in every performance parameter, including brightness, sheet formation, ink holdout, longevity, and runnability.
Finch Paper
(www.finchpaper.com)
All Finch Fine products are FSC and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified. Finch Fine premium uncoated text and cover provides 98 brightness, outstanding formation, and excellent black-and-white and color reproduction.
The Finch Fine Digital line includes: Finch Fine iD, specially designed and fully approved for use on the Hewlett-Packard sheet- and web-fed Indigo digital presses; Finch Fine Digital, designed for cross-platform performance on all digital and offset equipment, including copiers, printers and digital presses; and Finch Color Copier, designed for the high-resolution copier market.
Finch Paper has owned and sustainably managed more than 161,000 acres of forestland in New York State's Adirondack region since the early 1900s. The company's team of professional foresters manage Finch lands to provide a perpetual supply of wood for paper and other forest products.
Georgia-Pacific
(www.gp.com/papers)
Spectrum Recycled Offset, with 30-percent PC recycled fiber, is a quality offset sheet designed to offer the performance characteristics of virgin fiber paper along with the benefits of being recycled. Features of this line include a blue-white shade, consistent runnability and high-quality print performance, and it is available in many weights and sizes.
Spectrum Recycled Multi-Use paper contains 30-percent PC fiber. Engineered to the same high-quality standards as non-recycled papers, this performer is suited for copiers, laser printers, and high-volume imaging machines. Spectrum Recycled Multi-Use is designed for general business printing when the benefit of using a recycled product is important.
Glatfelter
(www.glatfelter.com)
Glatfelter's latest environmental product is called Natures Book—a solution to the growing demand for environmentally preferable book papers. Containing 50-percent PCW, the Natures Book line is acid-free and qualifies as a permanent recycled paper. The line comprises Antique, Smooth Antique, and Eggshell. Glatfelter Thor PCW provides book publishers with a cost-effective, quality alternative to premium book papers. It offers 30-percent PCW, making it a leader in environmentally responsible publishing-grade paper. Improving on one of the industry's first recycled papers offered, Thor Plus now contains 15-percent PCW, and offers 92 brightness. Thor Plus offers book publishers a cost-effective, quality paper that delivers durable value with the added plus of environmental responsibility. Expanded basis weight options cover 40# through 70#.
International Paper
(www.ippaper.com)
IP offers more than 50 paper grades with recycled content in its commercial printing and imaging papers business lines. Accent, Carolina, Springhill, Hammermill, and Williamsburg lines have 10- to 30-percent PCW, depending on the grade.
Accent Opaque Recycled Text and Cover, Carolina Envirocote C1S Cover, Springhill Digital Index, Index, Digital Vellum Bristol Cover, and Vellum Bristol Cover, and Williamsburg Recycled Offset contain 10-percent PCW. Hammermill Great White, bond, Fore MP colors and Springhill Digital Opaque Offset colors, Opaque Offset Colors, Digital Opaque Offset Cover, and Opaque Offset Cover contain 30-percent PCW.
Mohawk Fine Papers
(www.mohawkpaper.com)
Mohawk is now making select grades entirely with renewable energy. The company's premium lines, Beckett Expression, Beckett Concept, Strathmore Writing, and Strathmore Script are now made carbon neutral. The carbon emissions from all of the energy used to produce these papers is offset with Green-e certified, wind-generated electricity and purchased Verified Emissions Reduction credits (VERs), which fund renewable energy projects. By doing so Mohawk is seeking to make these papers with a net zero climate impact.
Monadnock
(www.mpm.com)
Monadnock offers Astrolite PC 100, a premium, 100-percent PCW paper. It is a second-generation recycled paper. With the objective of manufacturing papers that are best in category, Monadnock evolved from a 25-percent PCW to 100 percent. Astrolite PC 100 is a process chlorine-free paper—no chlorine or chlorine derivative is used in the pulping or papermaking process. Dulcet and Caress are elemental chlorine-free papers. In addition to Astrolite PC 100, Monadnock manufactures a variety of recycled papers on a custom order basis. Monadnock also manufactures conservation papers for museum board products, including facing and backing papers.
Neenah Paper
(www.neenahpaper.com)
Neenah Paper's many green initiatives include using Green-e certified renewable energy, obtaining third-party certifications from the FSC and the Chlorine Free Products Association (CFPA), expanding its FSC-certified offerings, producing papers watermarked with the FSC symbol and chain of custody, and reducing its natural gas consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by using Green Steam for energy.
Neenah's FSC-certified papers now include 100-percent PC fiber whites in the four finishes of the company's flagship Classic Brand and Environment Papers. Neenah was one of the first premium paper companies to offer FSC-certified papers to watermark the FSC symbol and chain of custody into its papers.
All of Neenah's 100-percent PC fiber papers in the Classic and Environment brands are made without chlorine or chlorine compounds. These offerings carry the PCF emblem.
Sappi Group
(www.sappi.com)
Sappi Fine Paper South Africa, a division of Sappi Group, has upgraded Sappi Stanger Mill, its coated paper mill in KwaZulu Natal, to a 'Triple Green' process. This upgrade involves environmentally sound, fully integrated procurement and manufacturing practice at the mill.
Triple Green means the primary source of pulp used in the production of paper products at Sappi Stanger Mill is sugar cane fiber, which is sourced from local suppliers, the bleaching process is elemental chlorine-free, and the wood fiber used in the production process is obtained from sustainable and internationally certified afforestation, using independently audited chains of custody for incoming fiber.
Every product produced at Sappi Stanger Mill is manufactured according to the principles of Triple Green. These products include the Avalon, Dukuza, and Crystal coated fine paper ranges, used for glossy brochures, coffee table books and magazines; and Platinum Label, used for labels.
Smart Papers
(www.smartpapers.com)
Smart Papers has FSC-certified papers (100-percent PC fiber) in its Synergy and Genesis product lines, and PC recycled content papers in all of its lines. The 30-percent PC papers include: Pegasus, Carnival, Synergy, Pegasus Fidelity, Passport, Kromekote Recycled, Knightkote Matte, and Magna Carta. Genesis offers 100-percent PC fiber.
Stora Enso North America
(www.storaenso.com/na)
Stora Enso's Arbor line was launched in 2006 and designed to optimize forest conservation without sacrificing print production values. FSC certification of this product line ensures, through independent third-party audits, that the paper comes from well-managed forests that adhere to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The Arbor line is specifically targeted to producers of upscale magazines and catalogs.
Benefits of the Arbor line are: 30-percent PC recycled fiber; virtually jam-free performance; performs on multiple devices; 92 brightness, 145 whiteness; acid free for archivability; meets executive order for recycled fiber; reduces down-time (improves efficiency); useful for a wide variety of applications; and excellent contrast and print quality.
Tembec Paper Group
(www.tembec.com)
FSC certified, Kallima Coated Cover C1S Plus is fully bleached coated paperboard with a double-coated topside featuring a true low-density construction and a unique backside coating. Offered in 8 pt. through 14 pt., the lower basis weight of Kallima Coated Cover C1S Plus means less weight for a given number of sheets and ultimately lower costs. Add to that the advantage of a single-coated backside that gives printers an economical alternative to conventional C2S grades, which weigh up to 20 percent more. The backside coating allows printers to take advantage of both sides of the sheet to maximize commercial print projects rendering colors sharper and truer.
Kallima Coated Cover C1S Plus has superior ink holdout, resulting in less ink usage and faster drying times. Finally, the 88 GE brightness ensures a clean, bright look. It also offers an excellent smoothness and print surface and is recommended for high-quality flexographic, lithographic, and rotogravure printing. It is suitable for embossing, die cutting, creasing and folding applications, foil stamping, UV coating, aqueous coating, and film laminations.
author: By Liz Fedorowicz




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