Best recycled paper product.....what could it be?

I took a training a couple of days ago, and really liked the recycled cardboard binder for the training materials.

It's not bleached, it touched rough on surface, it got slightly fluffy easily when in contact with table or other objects.

Yes again, like Whole Foods paper bag, it has an apparent quality of recycled product - not as good as new one.

That's exactly what I like with this binder. This is for training material. I don't care if the edges get bent or the surface get fluffy. As long as it can keep the papers together, I have no complaints at all.

According to my "recycling-is-not-alchemy" theory, contaminated post-consumer paper shouldn't be able to produce something of high quality unless you add more virgin material or more energy input to offset the bad quality of the feedstock.
Based on that, this binder could look like above. Ratio of post-consumer product in feedstock is probably high, energy or chemical input required for process is low, but the product is not as good as new product. (it's totally acceptable in this situation) I doubt it might not be recycled again. Maybe egg case?

On the other hand, if you try to make copy paper from recycled paper, it could be like this.

This is an unproven theory. I identified the maker for the binder and asked about the material, but the answer was "We know it's made of recycled paper, but we are not sure about the details."

I will investigate more even though not much information is available out there.

I really think the information will help to determine what to make out of recycled paper and what not to, to make paper recycling truly environmentally beneficial.

Whole Foods paper bag: 100% recycled and recyclable

I usually use reusable bag for grocery shopping, but I had to get this one.


Whole Foods' paper bag. It says: "This bag is made of 100% recycled paper (40% post-consumer recycled fiber and the remainder is post-industrial recycled fiber, excluding handles).


Sounds cool.

But this brought me back to my lingering question: "is recycling that environmentally beneficial?"

I wrote about Japanese recycled paper scandal the other day. What happened is that Japanese major paper companies lied about mixture ratio of recycled material and virgin material.

If what Nippon Paper Group argues is true, using recycled material (contaminated) requires more energy compared to using virgin material which leads to higher cost (and more additives or chemical input?). Plus, paper can be recycled max 4-5 times. The more time the material is recycled, the less yield the secondary product will achieve.

Whole Foods paper bag is made of 100% recycled paper. Obviously, it's not bleached. It touches pretty rough....not smooth. Yes it feels like "recycled" paper. Interestingly, the handle is not made of recycled materials. I assume that it's because recycled materials can not achieve the strength that is required for a handle.

Going back to Japan's recycled paper scandal, I think what Japanese companies were lying about was paper product such as copy paper. It will require more quality compared to a grocery bag.

Here is my question: shouldn't recycled paper focus on certain products that would require less quality?

Recycling is not alchemy. You cannot make super-quality product from bad quality material unless you use more input during the process. If that's the case, instead of trying to make everything from recycled paper, isn't it better to decide what to make from virgin materials and what from recycled materials?

I find LCA for recycled paper....recycled vs incinerated vs landfill.

I want see the environmental impact of the paper made of virgin material vs different mixture ratio of virgin and recycled, and vs 100% recycled. More preferable, different recycled materials scenario: homogeneous, heterogeneous, contamination level.....

Otherwise I can't decide which solution is most environmentally beneficial.

What is "recycled paper" exactly?

I wrote about Japanese recycled paper scandal. Ever since, I've been thinking what could be the most feasible recycled paper product considering the whole system. Possible elements;
* quality of post-consumer materials (feedstock): homogeneous versus heterogeneous, paint on the paper, new versus already recycled....
* mixture ratio of virgin material versus post-consumer material
* employed process and its input (energy, chemicals, water....)
* quality of the final product (recycled paper)

LCA (life cycle assessment), in principle, is a tool to compare environmental impacts of two or more different methods that achieve the same goal. For example, you can compare cloths diaper and disposable diaper to assess which has less environmental impact. What I want to know here, is the comparison of arrays of "recycled paper products" that employ different system.


In this picture it is very hard to tell the difference, but the left hand side is the recycled paper used at the university in the Netherlands. Right hand side is the recycled paper used here in US. Netherlands version is with lower quality. It's not pure white, thin, and weak. After some years, the color already changed a bit. But I assume that it is with less environmental/economic impact compared to the right hand side paper, if you look at the whole system. Am I right?

The specs for "recycled paper" is different from place to place. I would like to find which one is the best.....if you know anything about recycled paper, please help me.