Page 54 - Print21 July-August 2022

Increase in printed Amount of Australian Amount of paper
Sustainable Print
books sales in the pulp manufactured recycled
week prior to lockdown
Print – a green industry
Despite claims to the contrary, print is inherently environmentally friendly, and is the preferred form of communication for many groups in society, reports Print21 editor Wayne Robinson.
independently certified
Print has a perception problem when it comes to environmental issues, with misinformation rife.
The public looks at the size of a Harry Potter book or a weekend newspaper and thinks of all the trees chopped down to make it, sees the Amazon rain forest on its last legs, and with climate change at the top of the public’s agenda, print is in the firing line.
There are issues with deforestation, and they are complex given that the local population is often the driver, but that has nothing to do with print or paper, virtually all of which today comes from reliable sources, and which can be shown to have done so through chain
of custody certification. The paper sourced to use in printing is sourced from plantations.
Compared to other forms
of communication print really comes into its own when it comes to environmental credentials. You can recycle a printed product endlessly, but you can’t recycle a phone or computer battery.
Proportio wastepa
28% 85%
Amo pul i
paper d
Reading preferences
Laptop 11% or Desktop
15% Prefer mobile
or tablet
12%
Others
50%
Prefer to read in books
Hectares of working
Hectarestroeef wfaormrks in gAutsrteraeliaf:arms in Australia:
12%
e-Reader
The reality though is totally different, and quantifiably so. Responsible forest management sees more planation trees planted than are chopped down, in fact Australia has twice as many trees today than it did 100 years ago.
The logic is clear, no business,
and that includes paper and pulp
businesses, would remove their
only resource. The big Asian,
American and Scandinavian1922
papermakers have a clear business
And for the print process Hectiatsrelsf,osfowmoereksintigmates have tree pfarirnmtsaisn9A7upsetracleian:t less
environmentally damaging than the last century. Almost all the solvents used in print
1,00ha0v,e0g0o0ne by the wayside, and
any that do remain are disposed
Hectares of working
imperative to platnretetrfaerems,sqinuiAtuestralia: of carefully.
apart from the environmental and
ethical imperatives. And plant they
do, the plan1t9a2t2ion forests across 1,000,000
the world, including in Australia, are growing2i0n22siz2e,e0v0e0r,y0y0e0ar.
Print people can be confident
2022
Proportion of 2,000,000 wastepaper recy
as they gather around the barbie
with friends and neighbours that
theirs is a green industry, and
one that is getting greener. 21 2016 85%
1990
28%
cled:
1922 1,000,000 2022 2,000,000
Proportion of wastepaper recycled:
1990 28% 2016 85%
1990 2016
Proportion of wastepaper recycled:
Increase in printed book sales 2020 over 2019 (first 8 months)
Increase in printed books sales in the week prior to
lockdownSource: Two Sides
Increase in printed
book sales
Increase in printed
books sales in the
Amount of Australian
pulp manufactured
Amount of recycle
Parents who say their kids learn better from printed materials than online
Increase in printed book sales 2020 over 2019 (first 8 months)
2020 over 2019
week prior to
independently
Increase in printed (first 8 monthsb)ooks sales in the
Amount of Australian lockpdulopwmnanufactured
Amount of paper recyccelertdified
week prior to lockdown
independently certified
Source: Two Sides
54 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2022
Others
Others
15% Prefer mobile
12%
12% e-Reader
Laptop 11% or Desktop
Laptop 11% or Desktop
12%
d
15%
12%
n p
p n