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Closed loop
or closed shop?
Closing the loop has an appealing ring
to it, so it's not surprising that paper
manufacturers and waste contractors
are working together to provide
customers with a complete paper
procurement and recycling service.
The latest company to launch such
an offering is Banner Business Services,
the managed procurement arm of the
offce2offce group.
Its new 'closed loop' service is a
fully audited process encompassing the
collection of used paper from customer
premises, secure document shredding and
the supply of 100% recycled copier paper.
One of the benefts of an audited
service, according to o2o Group
commercial director Andy Craig, is that it
allows customers to track the progress of
their waste through the recycling process
to ensure that the paper they buy really
is made from their waste.
“Initial feedback we have received
suggests customers and their employees
value the fact they are able to re-use
the actual waste they created, in a
sustainable way. It represents a giant
step forward for environmentally aware
organisations,” he said.
This adds a CSR dimension to
a solution that has undoubted
environmental strengths through its
encouragement of recycling and the
Who benefts most from closed
loop paper recycling systems,
wonders James Goulding.
16 | p2p Magaz i ne | Autumn 2010 0870 903 9500
OPINION
purchase of 100% recycled
paper that is made using 60%
less energy and 55% less
water than virgin copier paper.
According to Banner, total offce
copier paper consumption in
the UK is 750,000 tonnes per
annum, of which only 50,000
tonnes (7%) is 100% recycled.
Buying 100% recycled
paper is a worthwhile (if
debatable) goal, but is there any
advantage in doing it as part
of a 'closed loop' system?Why
is that preferable to separating
the recycling and paper
procurement functions?
Robert Horne suggest that one of
the additional benefts of its yo-yo
paper and closed loop system, which
it launched last year, is that the waste
paper is collected from customers at the
same time as the new paper is delivered,
which helps to reduce transport-related
emissions (the yoyo recycled pulp pool
is also used to produce other recycled
papers such as OffceTeam's 100%
recycled EcoTeam paper).
This makes sense, but if a company
is still receiving deliveries of other
offce supplies and employing a waste
contractor to pick up other recyclables,
it is conceivable that there will be no
positive effect on total carbon emissions.
Something different
There are several closed loop systems on
the market, with or without traceability,
but one that stands out for being a little
different is PHS Paper Track from the PHS
Group a) because the paper made from
collected waste is manufactured at a mill
in the North of England (other schemes
tend to use paper mills in France and
Germany); and b) because the waste is
recycled not into copier paper, but toilet
paper and centrefeed, which is then sold
back to participants for use in company
washrooms.
Like schemes from Banner and Robert
Horne, this aspect of Paper Track is one
of its major selling points and a means
of engaging staff with company recycling
policies.
Another is the use of
a UK-based paper mill
and conversion plant near
Stockport, which reduces
the number of miles waste
paper has to travel for
conversion. PHS says that
this results in a low carbon
footprint, but as M-real
found out when it moved
the manufacture of its
Evolve recycled paper from
Kent to Northern France, factors other
than geographic proximity have a much
greater bearing on a paper's carbon
footprint, such as the use of combined
heat and power systems, biomass and
even nuclear power.
(Evolve itself is the product of an
early closed loop system where providers
of waste paper that was collected from
businesses in London and the South-East
by organisations such as BPR Laundry
and sent to the M-real recycled pulp
facility in Kent were offered discounts on
the purchase of Evolve paper from which
it was made.)
Another possible criticism of PHS
Paper Track is that using waste copier
and printer paper from offces to make
toilet paper is a waste of a high grade
resource at a time when such material is
in short supply and highly sought after
by buyers in the developing world.
Perhaps herein lies the real beneft of
closed loop systems; that they provide
manufacturers with a steady stream
of waste saving them from having to
compete for an increasingly sought
after commodity on the global stage.
Whether they share the cost benefts
that this entails by charging closed loop
customers lower than market prices
for their recycled paper will depend
on whether suppliers see 'closed loop'
systems as a partnership with customers
or a 'closed shop'.
Banner 0845 712 5926
PHS Paper Track 0870 609 3673
YoYo Paper 0800 269012
Banner's closed loop paper recycling
system turns customers' waste paper
into 100% recycled copier paper at a
factory in Germany, which it then sells
back to the waste providers.
PHS Paper Track turns offce
waste in toilet rolls and
centrefeed paper rolls.