Notebooks:
When shopping for a new notebook there are different factors that you should account for such as the binding or the paper used. There’s metal and plastic spirals along with paper binding. Paper can be new and white, recycled, or bamboo. Understanding the environmental impacts along with the creation process can aid you in making the right purchase.
School Supplies
White, loose-leaf paper creation:
Paper is created using pulpwood (Muthu et al., 2011). Pulpwood can be made from both hardwoods and softwoods such as spruce and fir or poplar and elm. The felled trees then must be processed into pulp which is through either a mechanical [fuel and energy] or a chemical process. Within the mechanical process, the wood is forced through grinders to break it down which then dumps it into a filter to gather the pulp and leave out foreign objects (Advameg, 2017). The grinding process physically separates the cellulose fibers which then the mill will wash [water usage]. The bleaching chemicals, such as chlorine dioxide, oxygen, or hydrogen peroxide would be added during this step and excess is washed away (EPA). During the chemical process, a chemical bath of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide which removes the bark. This would also be the stage that bleach or dyes could be added. The broken-down pulp is then transported to paper plants, which means fuel is burned (Advameg, 2017).
The pulp is put through a beating process to press it down to size the paper. Sizing effects the way the paper will react to ink – such as pen ink. From there, paper is made using a Fourdrinier machine. It contains a moving belt that forces the pulp through a fine mesh screen, which makes them fall into a set of rollers with a suction device to drain the water. The paper then goes into a press where it is pressed between wool felt rollers and then steam-heated cylinders to remove the remaining water. A large machine typically holds 40 to 70 drying cylinders which uses water to create constant steam (Advameg, 2017). This whole process uses constant energy along with lots of water.
The last step of paper making is putting it into large rolls for it to be shipped off for its ultimate use (Advameg. 2017).
With the paper being massed produced, there are environmental concerns that come with it. The paper companies claim that they plant a tree for every tree they chop down, but environmentalists argue that the new trees cannot replace the old ones as they are much smaller. The dyes, ink, and sizing chemicals are also harmful to the environment as they are often released into water and nearby land after they’re used. However, there are now federal requirements for pollution-free paper production (Advameg, 2017).
Recycled or Bamboo Paper:
It’s obvious that recycled notebooks would be a more environmentally friendly route to go over new notebooks when picking your school supplies, but then bamboo gets thrown into the mix. Which one should you choose?
Bamboo will undergo the same general process as hardwood or softwood paper does. The difference between the two is the regrowth of bamboo. Bamboo can be harvested 2 to 4 years after the bamboo has reached full height, which usually happens within a few months. Bamboo can be sustainably harvested every year and up to 5 years while trees range from 7 to 12 years. Pine and fir trees are harvested between 12 and 50 years – bamboo saves time and produces in large amounts. This cuts out the environmental concerns having to do with tree replacement. However, if bamboo is clear-cut, the ecosystem is affected, soil erosion is encouraged, and the carbon sequestration rate is dramatically reduced. There are more sustainable practices taking place to counteract this. Bamboo can grow on land that other plants can’t due to poor soil, this increases the area bamboo can be produced (Bamboo Living).
When it comes to recreating paper out of recycled paper, companies may create pulp by mixing the paper with water (PRC, Inc) and the regular paper making process starts over. This process adds more water but skips the mechanical and chemical processes of bark removing. It also prevents more trees from being cut down.
Both bamboo and recycled paper is a more environmentally friendly choice compared to the loose-leaf notebooks.
Pens:
There are also choices when it comes to picking the right pen to be writing all your school notes in your sustainable notebook you just bought. There are different types of plastic pens such as ballpoint, gel, fountain, erasable, and felt tip. Within each pen there are different components to make it work – tungsten for the ball in ballpoint ones, tips made out of brass, aluminum for the spring. The major part of the pen to consider is the barrel. While many are plastic, there are also bamboo and corn based plastics. So, which type should you choose?
Plastic:
The typical pen barrel is made out of polystyrene – a plastic that is cheap and mass produced making it so Bic and PaperMate can keep their prices low. In the production of polystyrene, chlorofluorocarbons are released in the air. These gases have about 1200 times the greenhouse effects than that of carbon dioxide. On the plus side, the plastic is clear allowing the pen user to see how much ink is left inside the pen (Ohio State University).
Polystyrene also usually can’t be recycled locally. To be able to properly recycle it, the object would have to be sent off to a centralized plant which would cost your local recycling company extra – something they most likely avoid. If it is recycled, the polystyrene can’t be used for many of the objects it once was able to be used for such as food products (Kelly, 2012).
Corn:
There is a farm, a company really, called Nature Works. It’s the largest lactic-acid plant in the world. They create a resin that’s developed from corn called polylactic acid or PLA. It can be formed into many plastic goods such as packaging for food or in this case, pens. It comes from a renewable source that also makes it compostable meaning that if it does end up in the environment, under certain conditions, it will break down into harmless natural compounds – supposedly (Royte, 2006).
Steven Mojo, the executive director of the Biodegradable Product institute, aided in creating a standard for biodegradability. It’s said that PLA will decompose in a “controlled composting environment…in fewer than 90 days.” What they don’t tell you is that the controlled environment is a compost facility that reaches 140 degrees for ten days in a row to break down scraps into fertilizer. Technically it is compost, you just can’t throw the pens in your backyard and assume it will disappear into the ground quickly (Royte, 2006). It also takes large amounts of energy and possibly oils to reach those temperatures for that long.
To make this happen, corn kernels arrive at the plant, so dextrose can be extracted which then later gets converted into lactide and eventually, the polymer will form which is PLA – the liquid form. The worker makes this in to a resin pellet for it to be melted down and shaped into whatever it needs to be. The resin has a low melting point which means it doesn’t have as many applications as the common plastic. Producing PLA uses 65% less energy than the common plastic counterparts, according to Nature Works, and with that, generates 68% few greenhouse gases along with not containing toxins (Royte, 2006).
Before the corn arrives at the plant, it needs to grow in a field. It is known that corn cultivation uses more nitrogen fertilizer, herbicides, and insecticides than any other crop farmed in the United States. On the bright side, prices of producing PLA have gone down drastically over the last 20 years with it now costing less than a dollar to produce one pound making these products easier for consumers to afford (Royte, 2006).
References
Advameg. (2017). Paper. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Paper.html
Bamboo Living. (n.d.). Bamboo vs Trees. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.bambooliving.com/index.php/why-bamboo/bamboo-vs-trees
EPA. "Paper Making and Recycling." U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed November 21, 2017. https://archive.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/paper/web/html/papermaking.html
Muthu, S. S., Li, Y., Hu, J., & Mok, P. (2011). Carbon footprint of shopping (grocery) bags in China, Hong Kong and India. Atmospheric Environment, 45(2), 469- 475. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.09.054
Paper Recycling Coalition, Inc. (n.d.). How 100% Recycled Paper is Made. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.paperrecyclingcoalition.com/recycled/index.php/faqs/how-is-100-recycled-paperboard-made/
Rosseland, B. O., Eldhuset, T. D., & Staurnes, M. (1990). Environmental Effects of Aluminum. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 12(1-2), 17-27. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
Royte, E. (2006). Corn plastic to the rescue? Smithsonian, 37(5). Retrieved November 30, 2017.
Binding:
The basics of creating plastic can be located under the creation of plastic shopping bags, for this section I will only be talking about aluminum wire binding and paper binding.
Aluminum Binding:
Skipping the extraction process of Aluminum, we’ll jump into the environmental effects it can cause. When present in high concentrations, Al- can become toxic to freshwater organisms due to acidic precipitation. It leads to Al- in soil solution and freshwater meaning both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are affected. It’s been found that the mycorrhiza and root systems in plants have levels of inorganic monomeric aluminum. With animals consuming these plants, they then ingest the aluminum particles entering it into the vast food chain (Rosseland et al., 1990). Companies such as American Wire Group based out of Miami, FL create the wire to then sell to the notebook or paper companies which in turn uses fuel for transit. When the wire is ready to be made into a binding, a machine threads it through the holed notebook. While there are hand crank machines you can purchase at staples, it’s safe to assume the factories use a mechanical version which uses energy.
Paper Binding:
Paper bound notebooks are bound with more paper [this process is explained in paper creation along with paper shopping bag creation]. Using an adhesive, that varies per company, the binding sticks to the covers of the notebook holding it shut. While this process may not feed aluminum to fish, it still goes through the long process that includes chemicals, energy, water, and polluted waste water than can end up in freshwater sources. Choosing a notebook with a bamboo or recycled paper binding is the best route to take when choosing a binding for your notebook.
What We Use
Notebook
Recycled of bamboo notebooks with a paper binding is the best choice of notebook as it reduced the amount of trees cut in the wild. Bamboo does help reduce CO2 in the environment – around the same amount as trees – but bamboo regenerates faster making it not as detrimental (Bamboo Living).
Pens
Corn based pens is the better choice when looking at the disposal state. While both can’t be recycled easily, when the corn pens are recycled correctly, it will be composted into fertilizer (Royte, 2006).