Health, Safety and Environment Committee

Subject: Moving to Recycled Copier Paper

Origin: Dr Anne Mumford, Tim Burton

About a year ago a proposal to move to recycled paper was made by the Director of Media Services. This proposal received the approval of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee. This paper reports on progress on this.

Since then the University has undertaken a formal tender process to procure copier paper (we use over 25M sheets per annum). This process was led by the Purchasing Office. Following expressions of interest by suppliers and the provision of samples, Media Services undertook testing of the various paper stocks which involved a number of departments. It was considered to be essential that the paper had good runability across the range of copiers and printers on campus as well as having the appearance of a quality sheet. Price was also an issue as it was unlikely that departments would wish to pay more for their paper. The stock selected needed to compare favourably with the Report paper used widely on campus which, although a virgin stock, has good environmental credentials in being from farmed trees and in having accredited processes. However it then travels to Loughborough from Brazil.

It was decided to continue using a single delivery point through Media Services, with deliveries coming to the loading bay in the Manzoni Building. This enables purchase of pallets of paper by aggregating departmental requirements and is more efficient for suppliers which helps to get a better price. It is also helpful environmentally and in terms of traffic flows in transferring from a lorry to smaller vehicles for distribution round campus.

The decision has been made to use EP4 paper which is manufactured in Kent using paper recovered from Britain’s workplaces. The bright, clear white paper is made to high environmental standards but with no compromise on quality. EP4 is developed using a minimum of 70% post consumer white waste using a chlorine free manufacturing process. Almost all waste is recycled or reused, e.g. metal content such as staples is collected and sent for recycling.

We have managed to get a price which is the same as that for the 75gsm Report paper. As most people use the slightly more expensive 80gsm paper, this will mean a reduction in paper costs for departments as well as the move to a more environmentally friendly paper. As we have gone out for formal tender, use of this paper by departments will be a requirement.

We will be investigating other paper types, such as coloured stock and the mill we are using to obtain EP4 have a large research and development programme aiming to widen the number of quality recycled options.

A number of University publications have moved to using fully or partially recycled stock and Media Services are providing advice and options to those developing publications.

Date – May 2007