We often get asked about environmentally friendly paper and even organic inks.

We're certainly in favour of cleaning up the environmental and creating a sustainable print industry.

Despite this, very few requests result in the use of recycled paper.

The fact is, recycled paper costs significantly more (double or more the price) and often gives an inferior print result.

Compounding this, green groups have challenged the validity and value of many paper recycling claims. For example, some papers claiming to be recycled have been accused of including a very low proportion of recycled paper or of using so called pre-consumer waste, which is material that has never actually been used prior to "recycling".

There is no enforced standard against which claims can be independently assessed.

Also to be considered is whether the proportion of new pulp came from plantation timber or native forest and to what extent it was a by-product rather than the primary use.

Further complicating decisions is the issue of bleaching. Most paper is made white by chlorine bleaching. Chlorine is an environmental risk factor and some environmentalists are at least as concerned with how paper is bleached as they are with the source of the pulp.

How can you make commercial sense of this?

Consider your market. If specific recycling credentials are important to your market, we'll help you choose the paper that is likely to be the most recycled. But if your aim is more generally to make a difference to the environment (and to be seen to be doing so) we can recommend alternate approaches such as buying carbon offsets donating to green causes.

At the same time, we support paper retailers providing better, more reliable information to consumers and encourage ongoing research to make paper manufacture more environmentally sustainable.