PaperWise upcycles agricultural waste, a secondary raw material that becomes available annually. Cellulose is extracted from this; the key ingredient for paper, which in the traditional paper industry is sourced from trees. By extracting cellulose from plant residues, trees can be preserved.
Cultivating crops such as rice, wheat, barley, oats, and sugarcane has been one of the most important ways for people to provide for their food for thousands of years.
Crops
Stems
Plant residues
Cellulose
Paperwise
Since the founding of PaperWise in 2015, together with all our customers, we have:
The environmental impact of PaperWise is impressive: 47% lower than that of paper made from trees and 29% lower than that of recycled paper. This is shown by an independent environmental study carried out by IVAM. They conducted an LCA quick scan for PaperWise using the ReCiPe midpoint 1.07 method. This revealed, among other things, that the impact on climate change in terms of CO2 equivalent emissions is lower for PaperWise than for paper made from trees and recycled paper. The CO2 savings per 1,000 kg of PaperWise amount to:
• 231 kg compared to paper made from trees
• 756 kg compared to recycled paper
Due to PaperWise’s lower CO2 emissions, your organisation will need to offset less CO2, thereby also reducing the costs of CO2 offsetting.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculates the environmental impact of a product or organisation based on the raw materials, materials and processes required. The LCA environmental study compares the environmental impact of PaperWise, paper from trees and recycled paper.
An LCA calculation provides a very comprehensive picture of a product’s total environmental impact across the entire supply chain; from raw material extraction through to production, packaging and transport. The environmental assessment identifies the environmental impact of the use of raw materials, energy, water, chemicals, machinery and waste processing. ReCiPe is the chosen method for impact assessment in an LCA. ISO standards 14040 and 14044 form the generic framework for this. ReCiPe distinguishes indicator scores across three themes (endpoints): human health, ecosystem diversity and resource availability. Underlying these three themes, 17 different environmental indicators (midpoint level) are included in the environmental calculation and expressed in LCA points. These include climate change (CO2), eco-toxicity to soil and water, particulate matter formation, human toxicity, land-use impact, ozone layer depletion, smog formation, depletion of fossil resources, soil acidification, etc.
The outcome is clear: PaperWise is demonstrably a more sustainable choice than paper made from trees and recycled paper.
