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May 24, 2001
Magazine Industry Is Wasting Forests
by Mark Thomsen
New study finds magazines use almost no recycled paper and publishers have an incentive to
overproduce wastefully.
SocialFunds.com --
A study released yesterday on paper use in the U.S. magazine industry found that industry practices
are responsible for wasteful deforestation. "Turning the Page: Environmental Impacts of the
Magazine Industry and Recommendations for Improvement" was released by the nonprofit PAPER (Printing Alternative Promoting
Environmental Responsibility) Project.
 The PAPER Project is a joint initiative of the
Independent Press Association, Co-op America and Conservatree. The project’s mission is to
reduce the magazine industry’s impact on the environment by helping magazine publishers adopt
environment-friendly printing and distribution practices.
The amount of paper wasted each
year by the magazine industry is truly astounding. "Turning the Page" reported that of the 4.7
billion magazines sent to newsstands every year, only 35 percent of them are actually purchased.
That means 2.9 billion magazines are thrown out without having been touched by a reader.
"Most of the magazines are printed on virgin wood paper," explained John Anner, Executive
Director of the Independent Press Association. "The trees are cut down, turned into magazines,
immediately sent to the newsstands, and then go directly into the waste stream. Whether they are
recycled or not doesn’t matter that much if all this waste is for no other purpose than
cutting down forests," he added.
The study offered other sobering figures. Of the
approximately 12 billion magazines printed annually in the U.S., over 95 percent are printed on 100
percent virgin paper. That results in more than 35 million trees being cut down each year.
Approximately 90 percent of those magazines are discarded within a year of publication, and
only about 20 percent of these are recycled. That results in over 9 billion magazines being
incinerated or landfilled yearly.
The use of virgin fiber to produce paper for magazines
has other detrimental effects on the environment. The chlorine or chlorine compounds used to
bleach paper produce extremely toxic dioxin, and the production process uses enormous amounts of
energy and water, as well as outputs considerably more pollution than ecological paper
alternatives.
"Turning the Page" estimated that if all magazines published in the U.S.
switched to at least 10 percent post-consumer content, the resulting annual savings would be over
540,000 tons timber. The switch also would save enough energy to power 23,000 households, reduce
greenhouse gas emissions equal to those produced by 56,000 cars, and eliminate solid wastes
equivalent to the garbage produced by 66,000 households.
A key factor in the waste issue
is a system that rewards publishers for overproducing publications. Publishers deliberately print
excessive numbers of magazines to maximize advertising rates. This makes economic sense because
the marginal cost of each magazine, an average of 91 cents, is low.
Publishers such Time
Inc. (ticker: AOL) and Advance Publications (the parent of Conde Nast) could take steps to reduce
the waste, however. The PAPER Project study suggests publishers focus their efforts in two areas:
increasing the post-consumer recycled content in the paper they use, and working with distributors
and retailers to achieve a better rate of newsstand magazines actually sold to customers.
With regard to using recycled content, the top three concerns cited by publishers are quality,
quantity and availability. Anner believes most publishers simply do not know how far recycled
content paper has progressed over the last decade, and cites Sierra, Outside and Blue as already
are printing on high-quality, recycled paper.
The PAPER Project is offering publishers expertise to help
them on issues such as identifying suitable recycled content paper, finding a new printer, mill or
supplier if necessary, and publicizing their environmental commitment.
"We must end the
environmental assault arising from the magazine industry's addiction to virgin papers," Dana Harmon
Charron, director of Co-op America's WoodWise Program said. "As Americans increasingly demand more
and more corporate responsibility when it comes to the environment, they won't tolerate magazine
publishers who blatantly ignore the obvious value of recycling and limiting pollution."
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SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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