WWF Launches "Database" of Eco-Rated Paper Products
WWF, Switzerland, has launched a global benchmarking tool for pulp and paper products. Check Your Paper is an online database to help paper buyers find products with the lowest environmental impact, according to WWF.
The tool purportedly rates the environmental quality of the papermaking process for a given product, including how well forests supplying fiber are managed, use of recycled fiber, fossil carbon dioxide emissions, waste going to landfills, and water pollution from mills. The fiber in all papers featured on the audited list on the website must come from known, legal sources. Paper products posted on the official list have been audited by third-party certification bodies to ensure high credibility, WWF notes.
Check Your Paper at the same time allows pulp and paper manufacturers to voluntarily rate and post their products’ environmental impacts online. Currently, the benchmark listing includes some 100 paper products with "good" or "excellent" environmental scores listed in the coated and uncoated categories, such as copy papers and printing and writing papers. Paper companies including Arjo Wiggins, ITC Limited Paper Boards and Specialty Papers Division, Mondi, M-real, Lenzing Papier, SCA, Steinbeis Papier, Tullis Russell, and UPM are the first to disclose their selected papers’ environmental profile on Check your Paper.
Check Your Paper includes all of the main pulp and paper categories, including coated and uncoated papers, newsprint, tissue, packaging and board papers, specialty papers, and several types of pulp.
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