Help the industry meet its ongoing commitment by ensuring that
the following revised message is published in every issue alongside
the recycling logo:
"RECYCLED PAPER MADE UP
87.2% OF THE RAW
MATERIAL FOR UK NEWSPAPERS
IN 2008."
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Newsprint is uncoated paper, made out of mechanical pulp or
waste paper, which is used to produce newspapers. Nowadays people
realise that newspapers are not responsible for rainforest
devastation. The hardwoods from tropical rainforests are simply not
suitable for newsprint production.
In fact, newsprint is an environmentally
sound, renewable resource which comes
from managed softwood coniferous forests, mainly in North America
and Europe. Here, for every tree cut down, two or three more are
planted.
In 1991, the UK publishers set a target of achieving 40%
recycled content in newspapers by the year 2000. The
industry met this target four years ahead of
schedule. The national average recycling figure now
appears prominently in all major newspapers, national and regional,
along with the industry's recycling logo.
In 1999, the industry's recycling working group completed its final
report to government. This report now forms the basis for the
setting of new recycled content targets for the years ahead.
In submitting the report and targets to the Environment Minister,
the recycling group has underlined the industry's
commitment to the environment and its achievement in
progressing, and almost doubling, recycled content from only 28% in
1991.
In our agreement with Government, made in April 2000, the first of
the new conditional targets was to reach 60% by the end of 2001.
That target was met ahead of schedule and the second target of 65%
by the end of 2003 was achieved - a year early, the final target
under the producer responsibility agreement was 70% by the end of
2006.
Research continues to establish outer limits of recycling but,
when those limits have been reached, there will still be paper
waste that has to be disposed of.
The Sustainability Group was set up by the NS in November 2007
as a forum to look at members' initiatives on carbon
footprint.
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