[greenyes] Paperless Office and Bleaching Paper

[Susan Kinsella <seek@no.address>]

Amy Bauman writes: "One viewpoint I ran across -- the tradeoff of paper
consumption vs. the additional bleach needed to whiten double-sided print
for recycling.  I never calculated the environmental impact of additional
bleach . . . , but I'd be interested to hear comments on that."

I don't think this is a real issue. Paper recycling is not built on
bleaching. Rather, the deinking necessary for recycling office papers back
into new office papers is designed to actually, physically separate the ink
from the paper fibers. Then the ink is coagulated or skimmed off, while the
paper fibers are sent on for processing into new paper.

Deinking mills can handle separating the ink, and I don't believe that paper
printed double-sided is a significant factor.

Susan Kinsella
Executive Director
Conservatree
http://www.conservatree.org
http://www.paperlisteningstudy.org