Recent reports that paper recycling could undermine efforts to prevent global warming are wrong, according to Friends of the Earth.

Research presented by Dr Lyndhurst Collins at the Royal Geographical Society conference this week claims that recycling paper reduces the need to plant more trees and increases the use of fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the gases responsible for global warming, while growing trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Dr Collins suggests that rather than recycling paper, it may be better to incinerate it to produce energy.

Friends of the Earth point out that although planting new trees will absorb CO2, if these trees are felled and made into paper, which is used once then incinerated, the CO2 is rapidly released into the atmosphere once more.

Incinerating used paper is not an energy-efficient option. Several studies show that more energy is saved through recycling paper than is generated by incinerating it.

Friends of the Earth says that combatting climate change through forests should focus on the conservation of natural forest not on the expansion of plantations. Plantations accumulate more carbon when young but hold a smaller amount than natural forest when mature.

It also points out that planting new trees and recycling paper are not mutually exclusive. The world demand for wood is predicted to almost double by the year 2010. Even with a huge expansion in the area of forest, recycling is essential to reduce the demand for new wood.

Friends of the Earth is calling for moves to decrease the consumption of wood and wood products, together with an increase in recycling of paper, and the development of local industries to use the wastepaper in the area of collection.

Dr Georgina Green, Forest Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:

"Dr Collins' conclusions really don't add up. Although growing more trees will absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere, it will all be released again when, as he suggests, the paper produced from the trees is incinerated. Recycling paper can contribute both to meeting the growing demand for wood, and reducing damaging CO2 emissions."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

[1] The claims were made in a paper entitled Recycling and the environmental debate: a challenge to the philosophy of altruism presented by Dr Lyndhurst Collins at The Royal Geographical Society's Annual Conference being held in Glasgow this week.

[2] A report by the Sound Resource Management Group, Inc in Canada shows that the energy conserved by recycling paper is over twice that generated by its incineration. (Morris J. and Canzoneri, D. 1992. Recycling versus Incineration: an energy conservation analysis Sound Resource Management Group Inc.)

Another report published by the British Newsprint Manufacturers' Association in 1995 concludes "an increase in recycling would reduce the global energy required for newsprint production" and that "If the best available technology is used, the net environmental benefits of recycling are clearly bigger than those of incineration." (BMNA 1995. The future for used newspapers: recycle or incinerate? British Newspapers Manufacturers Association, London)

Research by Friends of the Earth showed that producing paper from recycled material could result in energy savings, less water use and less pollution compared with producing paper from new trees (FoE, 1990. Market barriers to paper recycling. Friends of the Earth, London).