Our reused paper notebooks

Noted by Matt on 02.06.09

Good words, Words words words

We wanted some notebooks to promote our approach to writing for sustainability communications. We didn’t need 200, just a dozen or so. But we wanted them to be made from reused paper — plain office paper that had been printed on just one side.

Reclaimed paper notebooks
Our reused paper notebooks

There are some great recycled notebooks out there. Remarkable has a good range of them (and can also supply everything from pencils that used to be drinking cups to Frisbees fashioned from plastic bags). St Judes sell some stylish ones. And Sukie have some rescued paper notebooks. But in the end Jen at Flurogoddess came up with just what we wanted: personalised notebooks made in the UK from reused paper.

Reused v recycled

Using recycled paper is a good thing to do. It reduces waste, saves a lot of energy and cuts carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. According to WRAP:

On average, when comparing the manufacture of 100% recycled content paper to virgin paper, 1 tonne of recycled paper can save 1.32 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

We wanted to go one better and make notebooks from reused paper — office paper that had been printed on the front but was blank on the back. We figured that without the additional energy used to transport and recycle the paper (and with no need for any chemical treatment), the reclaimed paper notebooks would have even less impact on the environment. We‘re still trying to work out the exact difference. Watch this space.

*Update 18.09.09*

After we posted about our notebooks, Sion at Calverts sent us a copy of Paper Trails: From Trees to Trash — The True Cost of Paper by Mandy Haggith. Haggith points out that, according to the Journal of Resources, Conservation and Recycling, paper produces the equivalent of 6.3 tonnes of CO2 per tonne during its life cycle from forest to landfill (p.175).

If we say that reusing paper for our notebooks saves nearly all of those emissions, we can work out roughly how much CO2 we’re saving. Our notebooks weigh about 170g each. So each reused paper notebook saves about 1kg of CO2 compared with manufacturing a new one from virgin paper.

Of course, all this is approximate. And the paper industry would take issue with some of Mandy’s argument (they’ve launched their Two Sides campaign to do just that). But it does help us get an idea of the benefits of reused paper notebooks.

You can find a reusable copy of Paper Trails at your local library.