Buyer Beware

Forest and Bird, Volume 21, Issue 2, 1 May 1990, Page 8

Buyer Beware

GOING GREEN is not as easy as it first appears, as overseas experience is proving. The following example is an instructive one for beginners. Recycled paper may not be what we usually understand it to be, that is, paper which has been used and re-processed. The Warmer Campaign (World Action for Recycling Material and Energy from Rubbish), recently complained of their experience with "recycled" paper in Warmer Bulletin: "At no time were we told that "recycled" paper had probably never left the paper mill. Now that we are aware that the bulk of paper being sold as recycled is actually paper that was damaged in processing and simply reprocessed at the same mill, we feel a little foolish. Obviously mills cannot just discard damaged rolls, and it makes total sense to reprocess it in this way. We just wish that we, along with many thousands of other consumers, had not believed it to be recycled in the way that we all think of as recycled: post use. We feel conned." One of the most galling things is that mills have placed a premium on recycled paper, on the grounds that it is more costly to produce.