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In its technical form, paper is an aqueous deposit of any vegetable fibre in sheet form. The name comes from the Latin "papyrus", which in the hands of the early Egyptians (its first known users), comprised the pith of a grass-like plant which was sliced into layers and beaten or pressed into sheets. Paper, as we know it today, had its origins in China. Traditional Chinese records give the credit for its development to one T'sai Lun (about 105AD) who was even deified as the god of papermakers.

Paper is with us all day. Try thinking of a day without it; no toilet paper in the morning, no newspaper to read at breakfast, no juice carton, an unfiltered coffee, no kitchen tissues to wipe the table, no cigarettes after dinner, no bank notes to pay with, no letters or faxes in the office, no paper to print out emails, no paper to write on, no envelopes nor stamps, no photos of loved ones, no paper napkins for lunch, no magazines to read during breaks, no paper bags for carrying the shopping, no boxes to protect important goods, no book to read in bed.

Paper is all around us, working for us, delivering to us; it contributes to comfort, hygiene, security and information. Using paper doesn't just make our lives easier; it also makes an important environmental contribution to sustainability. Paper is a natural product because it is manufactured from a natural and renewable raw material - wood - and it is 100% recyclable.

Paper provides essential, everyday products that contribute to our quality of life; it also plays an important role in promoting education, democracy, knowledge, information, and culture. More about paper on www.paperonline.org

The paper industry uses two main raw materials for manufacturing paper - wood and recovered paper. Kaolin, starch and other products are used as supplementary materials in the paper production process.

Pulpwood used for papermaking once came from whole mature trees. Today, the papermaker usually uses parts of the tree that are left after wood has been used for other commercial purposes. Nearly all the pulpwood used in northern Europe could be classed as secondary cuttings, for example, thinnings extracted from the forest so that the remaining trees can grow to healthy maturity.

Recovered paper and board are the other major source of the paper industry's raw material. Half of the raw material used for paper production is recovered paper.

The industry was once based almost entirely on softwoods such as spruce, pine, larch, fir and cedar. Now birch, aspen and other hardwoods occurring in temperate climates are used as an ideal raw material for processing into fluting for corrugated cases as well as printing and writing papers, whilst eucalyptus, originally occurring only in Australia and New Zealand, has been successfully cultivated in other warm climates (e.g. South America, Spain and Portugal) as raw material for high-quality pulp suitable for a wide range of papers. Nevertheless, softwoods provide longer fibres (average 3 mm compared with 1mm for hardwoods) and continue to be used for papers required to have the highest strength characteristics.

No toilet paper in the morning, no newspaper to read at breakfast, an unfiltered coffee, no kitchen tissues to wipe the table, no cigarettes after dinner, no bank notes to pay for a subway ticket (which wouldn't exist anyway), no letters or faxes in the office, no paper to print out emails, no paper to write on, no envelopes and no stamps, no photos of loved ones, no paper napkins for lunch, no magazines to read during breaks, no paper bags for carrying the shopping, no boxes to protect important goods, no book to read in bed, etc.

The industry was once based almost entirely on softwoods such as spruce, pine, larch, fir and cedar. Now birch, aspen and other hardwoods occurring in temperate climates are used as an ideal raw material for processing into fluting for corrugated cases as well as printing and writing papers, whilst eucalyptus, originally occurring only in Australia and New Zealand, has been successfully cultivated in other warm climates (eg South America, Spain and Portugal) as raw material for high-quality pulp suitable for a wide range of papers. Nevertheless, softwoods provide longer fibres (average 3 mm compared with 1mm for hardwoods) and continue to be used for papers required to have the highest strength characteristics.

Paper is inherently sustainable; its raw materials are renewable and its products are recyclable. The European paper industry's strategy is to use natural resources in an efficient way, reducing negative environmental and social impacts and meeting society's need for sustainable consumption.

Choosing paper has an important and positive environmental effect. Utilising forest resources in a responsible way helps to ensure their vitality and continued growth. Paper products store carbon, helping to reduce greenhouse gases. These products can then be recycled, extending their life cycle and minimizing the use of landfill. When they can no longer be used or recycled it is possible to convert them into a renewable energy source.

This is all part of the virtuous eco-cycle that helps make the paper industry one of the most sustainable in Europe; working with and for the environment, delivering essential everyday products to society and making an important contribution to Europe's economic wealth, including providing vital jobs in rural areas.

The world's forests - and the wood and paper products that come from them - are unique in their ability to remove and store CO2. Although young, vigorously growing forests are more efficient at fixing CO2 than old forests. A portion of the CO2 that trees remove from the atmosphere remains fixed in wood and paper products throughout their useful life.

The view that bound carbon will disappear once the forest has been harvested is, therefore, erroneous -- many forest products remain in circulation for a long time. Wooden houses and wooden bridges store CO2 for decades and it may be stored in books for more than 10 years. On average one tonne of paper, for example, contains some 1.4 tonnes of CO2.

In newsprint and corrugated fibreboard, the CO2 circulates several times via the recycling of paper and is therefore stored longer than would otherwise be the case. In this way, the recycling of CO2 into the atmosphere is delayed. Recycling paper also diverts it from landfill sites.

The forest is a "sink" for carbon dioxide. Growing forests are efficient in "fixing" atmospheric carbon as trees take up far more carbon through photosynthesis than they liberate through respiration or when they begin to decompose. A cubic metre of wood, for example, contains 210 kilos of atmospheric carbon. Young, vigorously growing forests are more efficient at fixing carbon than old forests. The gross carbon storage in natural forests reaches a ceiling level after which the amount fixed is equal to the amount liberated in decomposition. Large quantities of carbon are also bound in products coming from the forest -- for example, in modern houses and wooden structures. Significant amounts are also found in the increasing quantity of paper circulating in society. The view that bound carbon will disappear once the forest has been harvested is, therefore, erroneous -- many forest products remain in circulation for a long time. Wooden houses and wooden bridges store carbon for decades; carbon may be stored in books for 10 years, while in toilet paper, it is rapidly returned to nature. In newsprint and corrugated fibreboard, the carbon circulates several times via the recovery of paper and is therefore stored longer than would otherwise be the case. In this way, the recycling of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is delayed.

Paper is a sustainable choice and if we only want to reduce paper consumption per se, the question is "what will we replace it with; plastic, aluminium, glass?". If we need to consider the most sustainable solution, from an energy efficiency point of view as well as from the sustainability of the raw material, then normally the answer is paper.

The paper industry is already the biggest user and producer of renewable energy in Europe. Additionally, it has made a public commitment to increase its use even further.
- Half of energy used in paper mills is from renewable sources.
- 96% of electricity on site is produced through combined heat and power.

At current rates of usage, trees for papermaking and other industrial uses will last forever; more wood is growing than is being cut down. Europe, for example, now has reserves of wood greater than a hundred years ago, despite the enormous growth of wood usage during the last fifty years. Forest stocks are being further conserved by the rapidly increasing use of recovered paper for the manufacture of paper and board. Over 30% of the world's papermaking fibres now derive from recovered paper and board. Wood is one of the very few raw materials used by a major industry which is infinitely self-renewing. Under Sustainable Forest Management less wood is felled than produced.

Contrary to public opinion, forest area in Europe is increasing, not decreasing every year. In fact it's increasing annually by an area of 5810 km2 - that's equivalent to an area the size of 4000 football pitches a day! One of the unique things about paper is that its main raw material, wood, is renewable. This combined with the sustainable way that European forests are managed, means that 33% more new trees grow in Europe each year than are felled. The European paper industry actively supports and promotes sustainable forest management.

Forest certification is a communications medium to show customers that good forest management is practised. To maintain credibility, it is important that the certification system is developed by the market's partners, without interference from the political sphere.

The European paper industry already sources fibre responsibly. The industry firmly condemns illegal logging and has implemented a Code of Conduct on legal logging. The industry also supports all credible certification systems and the percentage of certified raw material used by the industry is 55%.

Half of EU's forests are already certified and 86% of forests owned by paper companies are certified: the industry's commitment to responsible sourcing is clear.

Recovered paper is a valuable raw material that can be reused to create new paper and board products. Paper recovery is preferable to landfill or incineration for energy recovery.

Almost any household and office waste paper can be recycled, including used newspapers, cardboard, packaging, stationery, printing and copy paper, notebooks, "direct mail", magazines, catalogues, greeting cards and wrapping paper. It is important that these papers are kept separate from other waste -- 'contaminated' papers, those that have been in contact with food for example, are not acceptable for recycling.

Paper products can have several 'lives' as a result of recycling as they can be recycled several times - your stationery may go on to be a newspaper and then packaging for example. Recycling has its limits though. Every time a fibre in paper is recycled, it loses some of its strength. After being re-used about five to six times, it is no longer strong enough for papermaking.

More than half of the paper used in Europe today is already recycled. And the paper industry is part of a drive to increase that rate to 66% by 2010.

When looking at targets for increasing recycling rates we need to consider the percentage of paper that can actually be recycled. If we take into account paper that cannot be recycled such as cigarette papers, archives, or papers used in construction materials, then the maximum theoretical recycling rate for paper would be 81% instead of 100%. In practice, further amounts of paper would not be available for collection because they are used for other purposes - such as lighting fires - and it would not be economically viable or environmentally sustainable to collect every piece of paper.

Although recycling is both economically and ecologically sound, recovered paper cannot be used in all paper grades nor can it be used indefinitely. There are three considerations:

• Strength: every time a fibre is recycled, it loses some of its strength. After being reused about six times, it is no longer strong enough for papermaking.
• Quality: some paper grades make little or no use of recycled fibre because they need certain qualities which are provided only by new pulp or by top quality recovered paper that , however, is not available in large quantities.
• Utility: it is not possible to recover all paper. In addition to non-collectable and non-recyclable paper products that represent some 19% of all paper products concerned, it would not be economically viable or environmentally sound to collect and recycle everything that in theory would be possible because this would need an excessive amount of transportation.

Availability: the current level of recycling is already very high in Europe; in 2008 66% of paper and board consumed in Europe was collected and recycled. Taking into account the above consideration regarding utility, the bottleneck in paper recycling is not paper recycling capacity that is still in a strong growth period but the availability of recovered paper.

At the moment around 48% of all paper and board consumed in Europe are made of fibres recovered from used paper and board products but 66% of papers and board products consumed are collected to be recycled in Europe and outside Europe. This is only possible as a result of the significant investment by the paper industries in recycling capacity since the 1990s.

In the past 15 years the paper recycling capacity in Europe has doubled.

At the same time the paper industry has made important efforts to promote good quality collection systems at local community level; to increase sorting at source and the separate collection of used paper; and to establish well functioning markets for the recovered paper.

The paper industry is the biggest recycler in Europe, and Europe is the global champion of paper recycling.

CEPI actively advises related industries on best practices for responsible sourcing, to guarantee minimum waste of fibres. For example, CEPI produced a guidance document on responsible sourcing and supply that covers the whole chain of used paper recovery, from consumers to paper mills. CEPI's work on managing the quality of recovered paper has benefits that touch on all aspects of sustainability: materials are not wasted, unnecessary transportation of unusable materials is avoided and those involved in handling the material are not exposed to health and safety risks. CEPI recently introduced the Recovered Paper Identification System to further improve the sourcing.

No. Packaging prevents product waste, contamination and pilfering; all of which add cost to the product. Very often the environmental effect of avoided wastage of products outweighs the impact of increased packaging. If a package has more than one layer, each will be essential and will serve a particular purpose such as retaining moisture.

Paper and board forms the basis for 40% of all packaging in Europe today. Its use has become increasingly popular for a number of reasons

• It is versatile - coming in a variety of forms from functional brown cardboard boxes to beautiful wrapping papers.
• It is robust and adaptable - corrugated board can be used to protect a range of goods from delicate porcelain to large electrical items
• It is practical - cartons can be delivered flat to the packager, reducing both space and transport costs
• It makes sense for the environment and the economy:
  • It is easily recycled - paper and board packaging has a recycling rate of 77%, higher than any other packaging material in Europe and well beyond the 60% target set for end 2008 by the European Commission.
  • It is made from renewable materials, recovered paper and woodpulp
  • Corrugated board boxes have lower environmental impact and costs than plastic crates. Corrugated boxes perform better in both areas than reusable plastic crates - according to a recent study by the packaging Transport and Logistics Research institute (ITENE) at the University of Valencia, Spain.