Yep… Just like the state of California thought they were doing. But much to their chagrin they found out that 30% recycled PCW paper actually contained 70% virgin pulp from Indonesian rain forests.
Here is some truth and advice to ensure that this doesn’t happen on our watch.
What happened to the state of California anyway? We read this in the Sacramento Bee, a newspaper about state government in California. California is one of the most environmentally sensitive states in the union, and they are mandated to buy only copy paper with a high percentage of recycled content. Most copy papers today which are commercially available are advertised to contain 30% PCW (Post consumer content), but they do not say what the other 70% contains! That is what bit California.
It turns out that there is a dark side to those sheets of bright, white paper: the part that isn’t recycled comes from trees logged in the biologically rich but endangered forests of Indonesia. Another concern is that relying on recycled paper without reducing consumption is that the paper is shipped in from distant locations, increasing greenhouse gas pollution, not to mention the impact without controls on Asian forests.
So… how do we tell what paper to buy? As usual it is not an easy question to answer, but also as usual I’m going to answer it.
First answer is Buy Local. What I really mean is buy paper which is sourced from forests in the USA or Canada. North American forests are under strict conservation laws and practices which are designed to prevent forests from being stripped bare, unlike Indonesia and other remote parts of the world that will sell their resources at low prices and not care what happens to the land or the people and wildlife on it (or that was on it). If you don’t know where the paper come from…don’t buy it.
Final answer: With regard to the paper that Nashville Wraps uses in packaging products we publish the country of origin on every single item we sell. No one else in the industry does that.
Nashville Wraps has very high standards for paper (and plastic) content which means that we will not accept paper from foreign sources in any of our products made in the US or Canada (which is the majority of what we sell). And we have certification letters on file for every vendor of exactly what the material source is for product we sell including everything down to the ink on the paper. I doubt you will find that at any other packaging company.
I can tell you this much…we trust our US and Canadian vendors. We do not live in China and other places where the controls are not the same. So if you want to be sure, the answer in all cases is simple: Buy American. My guess is that once our competitors read this blog they will go scrambling off to once again try and keep up with us…I hope so.
Robby Meadows
PS: The Nashville Wraps catalog is printed on paper that has been certified by the FSC for both recycled and non-recycled content.
