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A RECENT full-page newspaper advertisement announced an environmental
award to the designers of Britain’s new, slimline phone books. The books
contain 10-per-cent less paper and so their production requires 10-per-cent
fewer trees. Thousands will therefore escape the chop. Obviously a good
case for a green award. Or is it? Reading the advertisement, and idly wondering
how many trees had been consumed to print it, I pondered something which
has puzzled me for several years. Does saving paper really save trees? The
thought occurs to me whenever I re-use envelopes with ‘This label saves
trees’ stickers. Obviously there’s an economic saving if a label costs less
than a new envelope. And while we rely on landfill for most of our waste-disposal
there’s also an environmental benefit from reducing the amount of anything
which has to be tipped. But does one really in the end save any trees? ‘Tree-saving’
recycled loo paper is soon to be available and labelled as such in Britain.
In West Germany they’ve had this for years – a rather Prussian product made
partly from old British tax-returns. Britain’s manufacturers already use
a proportion of recycled paper but have feared to say so in case customers
conclude that it comes not from similar irreproachable sources but from
the sewers. Green thinking has now encouraged some producers to come out
of, or go into, the closet and claim environmental friendliness for their
paper. Again, is the claim that it ‘saves trees’ anything more than a sales
gimmick? After all, virgin paper is not made from ‘wild’ trees. In particular,
and contrary to popular belief, it is not made from the hardwood trees of
the tropical forests. The trees used are softwoods, mostly grown in plantations,
a crop just like wheat.

Things were simple when I was in Miss Williams’s class in primary school.
Then the old phone book became the loo paper – half a sheet per child per
visit. Not just direct and effective re-use of a waste product but a lesson
in economy and a statement against sybaritism as well.

In the adult world, however, I have to take my own decisions and consider
their consequences. Even if my actions cause fewer trees to be turned into
envelopes or loo paper, will the end result be to save any of them? The
market for paper products is constantly expanding and that expansion has
been planned for by the producers of pulpwood trees. If demand is reduced
significantly that must mean lower prices and hence the possibility of new
markets opening up. Vigorous new markets could even mean more trees being
cut down. So it’s not certain that I ultimately help the trees by not buying
their products. Probably the best I can do is reprieve the occasional tree
for a year or so.

The dilemma of whether or not to save and recycle waste paper would
be eased if we incinerated refuse and used the heat. Then we should, logically,
not mind throwing paper away. A lot of research is going on into growing
trees for fuel. It would seem very odd to grow energy crops in remote rural
areas when a major source arises in cities where the energy is needed.

I know many people who are very keen on saving wastepaper. My residents’
association wants to set up a scheme. Some of its members believe, mistakenly,
that their efforts will help to save the rainforests. For others the motivation
may simply be a desire to make some response in the face of an unattractive
world. Put any of the counterarguments to a dedicated paper-saver, however,
and a fairly predictable answer is: ‘Well, at least I’m trying to do something’.

Even so, there may be better things to do. Unless there’s a real market
for the paper collected, increased supplies just depress the price until
it becomes a drug on the market. This has happened on the Continent where
municipal collection in West Germany has led to surpluses which have been
exported at low prices, killing the market for wastepaper collected in neighbouring
countries. Reprocessing capacity is currently being expanded in Britain
so that the risk of this happening here should be less. We may get back
to the situation where charities once more go around collecting wastepaper
as a significant source of income.

But if anyone can ever point to a tree which has truly been saved by
saving wastepaper I shall undo the good work immediately by eating it.

John Feather works as technical translator and energy consultant.