Page 62 - Print21 March-April 2020

Sustainability
Paper perception
The difference between the common perception of the impact of paper on the environment and fact has been highlighted in a ground-breaking study by Two Sides.
recycling rate in Europe exceeds 60 per cent, while the true figure is 72 per cent, close to the practical maximum recycling rate of 78 per cent.
“The report reveals an interesting insight into how print and paper is viewed by the public,” says Jonathan Tame, managing director of Two Sides. “It is positive to see both
wood and paper are viewed as low environmental impact materials, but the misconceptions around forestry and recycling rates have highlighted the necessity to raise awareness.”
A matter of choice
The perception gap around paper and the environment isn’t just confined to individuals. Whether deliberate
or not, companies and brands
appear to be miscalculating their customers’ preference for digital communications. As many businesses attempt to coerce their customers
to ‘switch to digital’, shifting them away from paper to email and text communications, a significant majority of people are resistant to the move, especially if it involves having to pay for paper statements.
Overall, 78 per cent of European consumers believe they have the right to choose how they receive communications (printed or electronically) from financial organisations and service providers. A further 62 per cent believe they shouldn’t be charged more for choosing paper bills and statements.
People prefer print
There is clearly a groundswell of positive opinion about print, a fact demonstrated by the response to the question of which format people prefer to read. Given the choice
of reading books, magazines and newspapers in print or digital form, print came out the resounding winner, with 69 per cent stating that print is the most enjoyable way to read books, 61 per cent preferring print for magazines, and 54 per cent choosing print for newspapers.
“It is positive and not too surprising to see that print
as a medium for reading and communications still comes out on top, with a clear majority agreeing it to be the most enjoyable way to read,” says Tame. “The prevailing environmental myths about
paper reaffirm the vital need for the Two Sides campaign to raise awareness and directly tackle these misconceptions.”
Of all the world’s materials, paper is perhaps the most misunderstood. While no one doubts the
environmental damage the burning of fossil fuels and disposal of single-use plastics is doing to the planet, there’s still a lot of confusion around paper and how its use affects the climate.
To counter the many misconceptions about print and paper, and its impact on the environment, paper and print lobby group Two Sides commissioned a wide-ranging study to assess people’s perceptions of paper and the often large differences between these perceptions and fact.
Not only did the study uncover a series of common misconceptions about paper, but it underlined the enduring value paper and print has in a society increasingly dominated by digital media.
There is little doubt that people all over the world are concerned about the environment. Unusual weather patterns, general rises
in temperature and irreversible damage to the natural world are making individuals and businesses question their role in climate change
62 Print21 MARCH/APRIL 2020
Above
Paper and print: suffers from reality versus perception gap
and understand more about these alarming trends.
But when it comes to paper,
there is a significant gap between assumption and fact. One key finding from the research was that 60 per cent of consumers believe that European forests are shrinking, when in fact, European forests have grown by 44,000sq km in the past 10 years – that is the equivalent of 1500 football pitches every day.
Indeed, just 10 per cent of
the French, Austrian, British, Scandinavian, German, and Italian people interviewed believe that European forests have actually been growing in size, demonstrating the scepticism people have about the positive environmental impact of the paper industry.
The low perception
One of the major reasons paper
is a sound environmental choice
for media, communications and packaging is its ability to be recycled several times, and it is heartening to note that Europeans perceive paper to have the highest recycling rate of all major materials. However, only a fifth of those surveyed believe the paper