What is the damage that pamphlets, magazines and newspapers are doing to the planet?

Please watch this video produced by the Environmental Paper Network.

Disclaimer about the information presented here

The following information is our thoughts on the topic, and is to be treated as an opinion. The information is a collection of freely available information on the internet, and although we fully believe that paper consumption through pamphlet, magazine and newspaper creation is mostly unnecessary and a polluter of the environment, we do not take responsibility for the accuracy of the information quoted and presented here as we didn’t participate in the research of these 'facts'. The information is used purely to provide evidence to support the argument.

Why do we think paper flyers, magazines and newspapers are unnecessary?

Our reasons are:

1. They are a waste of energy and resources.
2. That the internet exists and the information on the flyers, magazines or newspapers could be supplied through this medium.
3. That the only reason this doesn't happen, is because a universal system which everyone participates in and allows everyone a simple, high quality, and fair delivery platform hasn't been established. (After all, the local posty delivers letters to your letterbox. We don't question it. There is one system which we all use)

The first question that comes to mind

Is paper carbon neutral? Please read the Document 'Carbon neutral paper, fact or fiction?' from EPN (Environmental Paper Network)

Land fill stats

The landfill statistics from the statistics provided by SWAP Baseline Programme, NZ Government (View source) didn't show conclusive information about the exact impact the reduction in flyers and newspapers would make to the environment. The average percentage of paper disposed of in the sample landfills varied. For example in Dunedin, the Green Island landfill varied from 3% up to as high as 10%. But, it is apparently safe to think that the recycling systems put in place have had an effect as the amount appears to be reducing. This isn't the case however at all landfills.

Land fill stats not the only facts, so what do we need?

Further studies in waste at the Green Island Landfill in 2007 - 2008 showed that an average of 3% of the waste disposed of was paper. This information is not conclusive as an example of what the actual carbon foot print of the pamphlet, magazine and newspaper industry has in NZ because it doesn't show:

The observation from these statistics is that they don't show what we need to know. We need to know how many pamphlets a household gets per year and what the average weight of these would be, and as such what the carbon foot print of this is at a nationwide level. At this stage, having not collected an entire years worth of pamphlets at a selection of houses throughout NZ, we can only take an educated guess at this figure, and plan to assess this more accurately at a later date.

The Carbon foot print

If you use the latest growth figure of 8.2291% over 5 years, the current dwellings in 2009 is approximately 1,544,412 dwellings containing 4,226,825 residents. This is an average of 2.736 people per house. The example below has been worked out at 4.25 metric tonnes of emissions in carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of product for 100% virgin paper as per the report from the EPN. The paper used for pamphlet and newspaper is probably not '100% virgin paper' but also take in to account the foot print for the paper does not include the printing of the paper, the poution created by the staff driving to work and back everyday, power generation for the machines used to print, the delivery to the letterbox on a nationwide scale, etc

These figure don't include the main local paper. It only includes the small free ones. The ten year carbon foot print based from the figures for the week 26/10/2009 to the 1/11/2009 (our worst example) is 3,703,263.72 tonnes of Carbon dioxide produced which could be avoided if we went digital. This however is not the only pollution from this process. The full list of other pollutants from papers' full life cycle, with health and environmental impacts include:

• carbon monoxide
• nitrogen oxides (NOx) which contribute to acid rain and
  cause lung damage and respiratory illness
• particulate matter (PM) which forms haze (smog) that
  reduces visibility
• sulfur dioxide (SO2) which also contributes to acid rain
  and causes respiratory illness
• volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which react with
  nitrogen oxides to form ozone as well as a variety of
  human illnesses
• and ozone, which forms smog.

Summary

In conclusion, if we didn't create flyers, magazines and newspapers with paper and we viewed them over the internet then we would have a dramatically smaller foot print. After all, we already have computers running to check email, chat online to friends, send pictures around the world, have video calls, and watch TV, etc.

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