We have increased the share of agricultural waste in PaperWise White – our white, sustainable graphical paper available in 80-90 and 110 gram variants – to over 85%. When we launched in 2015, the proportion of plant waste in said products was 55%. This means that PaperWise and the paper factory have managed to increase the proportion of agricultural waste in its products by a substantial margin! This calls for celebration! In our mission to make the paper industry more sustainable, PaperWise will continue to innovate and improve. Curious to find out how we achieved this step?
We’d first like to take you back to our mission: we want to achieve both social and environmental gains by stopping the burning of agricultural waste and instead giving it a second life as a perfect raw material for PaperWise paper and board. Impoverished farmers in developing countries are only paid for the food grown on food crops; in other words, for the edible part of the plant. This only amounts to 20% of the whole plant! The remaining 80%, consisting of stems and leaves, is often burned which leads to environmental pollution, the worsening of soil quality, and smog formation.
However, this does not apply to the farmers who’s crops are used as a raw material for PaperWise.
The agricultural waste from these farmers is not burned, but collected for use as a perfect raw material for PaperWise paper and board. That means that the farmers get paid for 100% of their plants! After all, providing a higher return to the farmers for their plants contributes to greater prosperity. By choosing PaperWise paper and board for your sustainable product packagings and printed materials or by using PaperWise products in your office (such as environmentally friendly printing and copying paper, writing pads and drinking cups ), you instil value in the plant waste representing 80% of the plant (stems and leaves) and contribute to social and environmental progress!
Which challenges do we still face?
We aim to continue to innovate and improve. We are very proud to have increased the share of agricultural waste in PaperWise White from 55% to over 85%. Even so, there is still room for improvement in this area. Thankfully, PaperWise Natural, our unbleached, light-brown paper and board, already consists of 100% agricultural waste. But wait, there’s more! PaperWise currently does not have any influence on the chain from the farmer to PaperWise. These contacts are conducted via the paper factories and farmers’ cooperatives. PaperWise wants to gain influence in the chain to ensure that together with impoverished farmers (via cooperatives) we can create policy to improve the prosperity and well-being of this group.
PaperWise helps create the road to a responsible future
Join the movement and use PaperWise where necessary for all your environmentally friendly product packagings, printed materials, and stationery. In this way, we can work together to make our society more sustainable and do our best to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Wise With Waste, together!