Wood War Sprawls to IRS, Fortune 500

Published March 17 2010

By Monte Paulsen

"SFI Inc. is a fully independent, charitable organization dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management." So says the Sustainable Forestry Initiative's web site. And so says the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.To read further click here

By Verle Sutton

Published March 18, 2010

The Forest Stewardship Council calls its forestry rules the "gold" standard, and its allies have accused the rival Sustainable Forestry Initiative of promoting "vague" rules that wind up certifying "status quo" forestry. To read further click here

By Monte Paulsen

March 24 2010

The long standing feud between ForestEthics (FSC certification) and SFI has reached another level recently. ForestEthics is, as reported in Wood Wars Sprawls to IRS, Fortune 500, challenging SFIs charitable status. This short article is good update. To read further click here

The Democratic Republic of Congo

Online Blog

by Anup Shah

August 21, 2010

There have been a number of complex reasons, including conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals and other resources as well as various political agendas.
This has been fueled and supported by various national and international corporations and other regimes which have an interest in the outcome of the conflict.To read further click here

July 19th, 2011

Americans are doing an increasingly good job of recovering waste paper for recycling. We're now recovering approximately 64% of all paper, compared to just 26% of glass, and only 7% of plastic, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This successful paper recovery effort achieves the primary environmental benefit of recycling — conserving landfill space.

There's just one big problem.

As United Steelworkers Union International Vice president Jon Geenen pointed out in a recent issue of Pulp & Paper International magazine: 61% of the paper recovered in the U.S. in April was exported, which means:

We're taking nearly two-thirds of the paper that we so conscientiously keep out of our garbage bags and sending it overseas (think of the energy use) to be processed into recycled paper products that are, in many instances, shipped back here (more energy) to compete with American-made papers.To read further click here

Taxes are taking a Toll on Forests
Finch in the Forest Blog
With Roger Dziengeleski

August 9th, 2011

The majority of the private forestland in the United States today is owned by family ownerships that are having an increasingly difficult time affording their land — and that's something we all should be concerned about.

These are the forests that pull greenhouse gases from our air, filter our water, offer homes for wildlife, and provide us with scenic beauty, recreational opportunities and the wood for essential products.

When forest owners can no longer afford the costs of ownership, they often have no choice but to sell — to people who can make a return on their investment by clearing and converting the land for residential or commercial development.

In 2005, a U.S. Forest Service study found that the privately owned "forests that provide about 90% of timber harvested in the U.S., nearly 30% of all fresh water, and the key to conservation of many fish and wildlife species are increasingly likely to experience housing development."

"Every day," the Forest Service says, "America loses more than 4,000 acres of open space to development; that's more than 3 acres per minute, and the rate of conversion is getting faster all the time." To read further click here

Deinking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Deinking is the industrial process of removing printing ink from paperfibers of recycled paper to make deinked pulp.

The key in the deinking process is the ability to detach ink from the fibers. This is achieved by a combination of mechanical action and chemical means. In Europe the most common process is froth flotation deinking.

Paper is one of the main targets for recycling. A concern about recycling wood pulp paper is that the fibers are degraded with each cycle and after being recycled 4-6 times the fibers become too short and week to be useful in making paper.^[1] To read further click here

Down to Earth Series

Get the facts about paper, printing and the environment.

DOWN TO EARTH

INTERNATIONAL PAPER

International paper launched an environmental series in 2008 called Down to Earth^TM that has received outstanding responses. With Down to Earth, we hope to clear up some of the myths and misconceptions about our industry and dispel these myths with thought provoking educational pieces that help our collective customers and others better understanding complex environmental topics.

Series 1: Where does your paper come from?

There is much confusion and misinformation surrounding sustainability and paper's role in ensuring a sustainable future. To help printers, end-users and our merchants, we have created the "Down To Earth" educational series. A 3 piece series which provides a practical look at environmental issues and trends.

The first installment: "Where does your paper come from"? encourages the reader to question the source of the fiber used in their paper. It stresses the importance of effective forest management and explains what certification is and how multiple certifications lead to improved availability and cost control.

Series 2: Is recycled paper the best you can do?

This second installment in the "Down To Earth" educational series focuses on the topic of recycled vs. virgin fiber and poses the question -->

Advocates finding a balance as it relates to virgin and recycled content. Nothing that more recycled content isn't always best. Highlighting these 2 types of fiber are complementary and that various factors should be considered:

  . Costs

  . Downcycling vs. upcycling

  . Global considerations.

To read further click here

Issue: Why Is Tree Farming Important For America And America's Forests?

In the U.S, private forest ownership represents almost 60 percent of all forestland. Maintaining these forests for such uses as tree farms provides advantages for the environment, local communities and private landowners, while easing pressure on public lands that may be better suited to conservation and/or recreation.

The Dilemmas Faced By Private Landowners

There are more than 11 million individual owners of private forests in the U.S. Over 90 percent of wood harvested to make the paper and wood products we use everyday comes from these private landowners. These private landowners provide an important raw material - wood - for the forest products industry. They also provide critical ecological and social benefits. But land ownership isn't free, and without a positive economic balance, many owners unfortunately decide to sell land for development.

To read further click here

Issue:Is Recycled Paper The best We can do?

USE Virgin Fiber For Your High-Quality Paper

HOW CONCERNED should you be about the amount of post-consumer waste in your paper? That depends on the kind of paper you're using. Recovered fiber is best used in "dark" papers. In a process called down-cycling, recovered fibers from recycled office paper or high-end printing paper are used in papers designed for less demanding applications, such as manila folders or cardboard.

Down-cycling is the most efficient form of recycling.

On the other hand, when the recovered content is used for a white, bright sheet, we call that up-cycling. Up-cycling demands extra chemicals and resources to de-ink and make recovered fibers white again.

For these reasons, virgin fiber makes more sense for bright white papers,

Another concern is quality. Each time fibers are recovered and recycled, they become shorter and more brittle. As a result, too much recovered fiber can compromise a paper's performance and strength. This is why high-end printing papers may contain small amounts of post-consumer waste, or may not contain any at all. Not to worry. Virgin paper can be down-cycled multiple times to become packaging, newsprint and other paper products.

To read further click here

Consumer survey Results Reveal Direct Mail Still Prefered

December 1, 2011

DALLAS- Dec, 1, 2011- Epsilon Targeting, a leading provider of consumer information for targeted marketing solutions, released the "2011 Channel Preference Study," which shows that direct mail continues to deliver as consumers' preferred means of receiving marketing messages even through the economic turmoil, technology advances and channel proliferation.

The 2011 research shows that despite direct mail's reputation for being "old school" or expensive, it is the top choice of U.S, and Canadian consumers for the receipt of brand communications in almost every category, ranging from health to household products, to household services, insurance and financial services, including credit cards offers. The preference for direct mail also extends to the 18-34 year old demographic.

Key findings from the study include:

• 36 percent of U.S. consumers and 40 percent of Canadians said direct mail is   the     preferred channel to receive financial services information;
• 26 percent of U.S. consumers and 30 percent of Canadians said direct mail is more trustworthy than e-mail;
• 50 percent of U.S. consumers and 48 percent of Canadians said they pay more attention to postal mail than e-mail;
• 60 percent of U.S. consumers and 64 percent of Canadians said they enjoy checking the mailbox for postal mail, highlighting an emotional connection;
• 30 percent of U.S. consumers said they’re receiving more mail that interests them compared to a year ago, and just 50 percent (down from 63 percent in 2010) said more information is sent to them in the mail—indicating marketers are improving targeting efforts; and

• the perception that reading e-mail is faster declined among U.S. e-mail account holders to 45 percent in 2011 (from 47 percent in 2010), suggesting clogged inboxes are draining time.

           To read further click here.
         

This post isn't new information, but it takes us back to the childhood story that first sparked many of our generations environmentalist passions.