Fibre source

There are labels specific to virgin fibre and and labels specific to recycled content, with some overlaps - which does create confusion. Some of the manufacturing labels also include reference to the fibre source, so this classification is very approximate.

Virgin fibre

There are two commonly seen labels in the UK, FSC and PEFC, both of which are awarded for responsibly managed forests. Managing a forest sustainably involves more than just replanting trees - it is important to protect biodiversity, important ecosystems, soil and water quality, the rights of the local peoples and the rights and well-being of workers as well.

Illegal logging is also a major concern. Using only traceable sources of fibre, such as FSC and PEFC chain of custody certified materials reduces the opportunities to sell such timber and so helps tackle the problem.

The award criteria for the actual label stops at the forest - how the fibre is processed is not within the scope of the label. However, both schemes do provide for 'chain of custody' labels, the purpose of which is to provide assurance to users for timber-based products that the timber or product, including printed paper, they are buying does indeed come from a certified forest. The 'chain' is an audit trail from forest to end product, following ownership of the fibre.

(c) 1996 FSC A.C.

FSC is the Forest Stewardship Council. The links on the right will take you to their UK website for local information, including a product search page. To find more about FSC around the world, use the link to the international site.

PEFC/16-44-663

PEFC is the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes. Again, you can link to their website from the list on the right of the page.There are differences between these two schemes, and there are links on the right to further information on the subject.

There are also numerous other schemes globally, although their products are not yet commonly seen in the UK: the USA's SFI and Canada's CSA CAN/CSA-Z809 SFM Standard are perhaps the most likely to be seen in papers used here.

Recycled fibre

Both FSC and PEFC also label recycled fibre content of a paper, which does give rise to confusion amongst buyers. Their certification does not mean that the paper contains recycled FSC or PEFC fibre. It means that the source of the recycled fibre has been checked, and the same type of Chain of Custody process followed as for virgin fibre, so that purchasers can be sure that the fibre genuinely is recycled.

The main UK label purely looking at recycled fibre content, and with controls on use, is the NAPM (National Association of Paper Merchants) Recycled Mark. This was again developed to help assure purchasers that they were using genuine recycled paper - at the time there were concerns about mill broke (process waste within a paper mill that has traditionally always been re-used within the process) being labelled as recycled content. To be certified, a paper "must be manufactured from a minimum of 50%, 75% or 100% genuine paper and board waste fibre, no part of which should contain mill produced waste".

The NAPM defines genuine recovered fibre in the following terms:

1. Converters Waste: waste that has left the mill and is waste from a cutting or slitting operation
2. Printers waste: printed or unprinted - waste collected from a printing operation and may be either 'trimmings' (guillotine waste), 'overs', 'rejects' or any other similar waste received direct from a printer.
3. Domestic/Office waste: waste collected from either of these places - it may be printed or unprinted.
4. Newsstand Returns
5. Other - for example industrial waste, agricultural waste etc.

A label commonly seen, frequently used incorrectly and also frequently misunderstood, is the mobius loop. Used correctly, it has two versions:

On its own, as shown on the left. it simply means that the product, or part of it, can be recycled where facilities are available.

When shown with a percentage figure in the centre, as on the right, it means that the stated percentage of recycled material has been used in making the product.

Labels for paper manufacturing

These labels are lifecycle based, so do not, strictly speaking, apply solely to the manufacturing process - they also take into  account the virgin fibre content and consider recycling at end of life by encouraging use of recycled fibre, therefore overlapping to an extent with the previous category. However, the criteria for raw materials tend not to be so specific, or so rigorous as for the previous labels - so if the fibre source is a particular concern to you or your customer, you would need to look for papers carrying both types of label.

What all these labels have in common is that they take into account the main impacts in the manufacturing - use of energy, the chemicals used, what goes into the water and air, and the waste created - and set performance levels to be achieved. These are reviewed and tightened up on a regular basis, as technology allows advances to be made.

There are not so many of these in common use in the UK now, as more companies are moving towards EMAS and product declarations, but they are still relevant.

The EU Eco-label "tells you ...

• The product has been manufactured using special recycled fibres
• Virgin fibres come from sustainably managed forests
• Air emissions of sulphur and CO2 and water pollution have been limited during production"

The label also restricts or disallows the use of certain hazardous chemicals, including chlorine gas.

The requirement for virgin fibres is only that at least 10% come from forests that are certified. There is no specific for the percentage content to be recycled fibre, the only requirement is that mill broke is not included as recycled content.

The Blue Angel (Blauer Engel) is a German scheme, and the world's oldest eco-label, celebrating its 30th birthday this year.

It's not restricted to products manufactured by companies based in Germany and it is therefore seen throughout Europe. It operates in co-operation with the EU Eco-label.

This label again covers numerous product categories, differing according to the nature of the product. There are two relevant paper categories: Recycled Paper, which specifies a 100% recycled content, and Printing and Publication Papers primarily made of waste paper, which must use at least 800 kg of waste paper per 1000 kg of new paper produced. For both, the scope covers impacts of manufacture and use of raw materials, including fibre, and restricts or disallows certain hazardous chemicals, including chlorine gas.

The Nordic Swan labelling scheme is based in the Nordic countries and there are national offices for Nordic Swan in each of the participating countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The label covers several paper types, including 'copy and printing paper', and impacts on production and, again, raw materials as with the previous two labels. For copy and printing paper it specifies that at least 20% of the fibre in the paper must come from certified forestry operations, or at least 75% of the fibre must be recycled fibre (or woodshavings or sawdust), or a combination of the two. For a recycled fibre content of less than 75%, there are further calculations to be made about certified forestry.

Paper with the label had been commonly available in the UK, and stocked by mainstream paper merchants, until quite recently but is now less often seen as more manufacturers use EMAS (described later). It again works in co-operation with the EU Eco-label.

Paper Profile is a European paper industry initiative, developed by a number of paper manufacturers and used in several countries around the world. It is a voluntary environmental product declaration, and as such does not set benchmarks or criteria to be achieved. What it does do is offer a standardised way for information about particular papers to be collected and presented to the paper buyer to help them in their decision-making. It also recommends that the manufacturers providing Paper Profile declarations should have the information verified by an accredited third party organisation.

WWF paper toolbox is a recent initiative, using scorecards to be completed by manufacturers that are similar to the Paper Profile in the nature of the information to be provided. Categories are fibre source, carbon dioxide emissions from use of fossil fuels in manufacture, including purchased electricity, measures of what goes into the waste water, waste to landfill and environmental management systems.

To help buyers with decision making, it then uses a points system to score according to performance in each category, adding to a total performance score.

Labels for printing

As yet there is no lifecycle-based label for printed products in the UK, but an EU Eco-label is in preparation. You can find the draft for this on the Eco-label website by following the link to 'Technical documents'.

The FSC and PEFC logos can be used on printed products when full chain of custody is in place - the printer must be included in this chain, either through having chain of custody certification themselves, or as an outworker managed within the scope of certification of the owner of the paper - for example, a publisher. Printing onto the relevant paper is not enough!

ISO 14001 and EMAS are often confused with environmental labels, but are actually something quite different. They are certified (or, in the case of EMAS, verified) environmental management systems, and are evidence of the way the holder is carrying out their operations, not of specific performance levels. Both require auditing by third party assessors.

Carbon labelling can also be used on printed products - and there is further information in the pages about energy efficiency.

PAS 75 is a fairly new Publicly Available Specification from BSI. It's full title is PAS 75:2005: Specification for the service and provision of printing services, and it was developed in co-operation with the BPIF. The specification is not for an environmental management system, but does include environmental management as part of the requirements, along with business planning, information security, occupational health & safety, financial management, management culture, administration, estimating & invoicing, print production & service delivery, delivery of product, service quality, colour management and training provision.

A fairly recent addition, launched this year, is a Publicly Available Specification for Direct marketing - Environmental performance, Pas 2020. While this, again, is not specifically just for print, it does involve the printed elements. PAS 2020 is described in the section on EMS & best practice.