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CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER COSTS 50,000 TREES!

20 Dec 1996

Of seven high street chains visited (WH Smiths, Woolworths, Boots, Tesco, J. Sainsbury, J.Menzies, Marks and Spencer), only one (Marks and Spencers) stocked recycled wrapping paper.

Georgina Green of Friends of the Earth said:

"Using trees to make a disposable product like wrapping paper is simply throwing forests onto the rubbish tip. Wrapping paper should be made from recycled paper and shops should start selling it."

The excessive consumption of wood and paper is putting enormous pressure on the world's forests, more and more of which are being cut down to satisfy increasing demand. Recycling paper can help take pressure off the forests.

Much of the paper used in the UK comes from Scandinavia, especially Sweden and Finland [2].Scandinavian forests have been so heavily exploited that just 5% of the old, natural forest remains, but even this is still being logged threatening many hundreds of plants and animals [3].

[1]     In 1995, 11 thousand tonnes of wrapping paper was sold in the UK. On average, it takes 6 mature trees to make a tonne of paper, therefore 49,500 trees are needed to make the 8,250 tonnes used at Christmas (estimated Christmas use = 75% of total). 10,000 trees were cut down to make way for the Newbury bypass.

[2]     Over 30% of the UK's paper and over 40% of our timber comes from Finland and Sweden.

[3]     Over 1,700 forest-dependent plants and animals are listed as endangered in Sweden, and over 700 in Finland. Many of these are reliant on the last remaining patches of old, natural forest.

[4]     Friends of the Earth is campaigning for the use of wood and paper to be reduced by 65%by the year 2010, in order to be within sustainable limits. This reduction must be achieved by more careful use, increasing re-use and recycling and an abandoning of throwaway attitudes (ie not by replacing wood products with other materials such as plastics or metals).

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