Deceptive packaging "wood-free": What's behind the term?

18.04.2019 - Sugar-free biscuits, fat-free milk, wood-free paper. "Free from" products have been on the rise in recent years and suggest that we are doing something good: By buying them, we are doing something good for ourselves or the environment. But what does the term "wood-free" actually mean?

Not all paper is the same. It differs in how it feels, how white or transparent it is. These different paper properties - feel, whiteness and opacity - are related to the manufacturing process and the substances it contains.

Wood-free vs. wood-containing - what's the difference?

Basically, the term wood-free does not refer to whether or not trees were felled to produce the paper, but to the process by which paper was made from the tree. To understand the difference between the frequently used terms wood-free and wood-containing, you have to start with the three main components of wood. These are 40 to 50 per cent cellulose, 25 to 35 per cent hemicellulose and 20 to 30 per cent lignin. The latter are solid biopolymers that are incorporated into the plant cell wall and thus cause the cell to lignify. To produce paper, the wood matrix is broken up and separated into these components.

During purely mechanical defibration, all three substances remain in the wood, including the lignifying lignin. The pulp produced is therefore referred to as mechanical pulp. If this pulp is used for paper production, it is referred to as wood-containing paper.

However, wood-free paper also ultimately consists of wood. The same tree species and deforestation areas are involved as in the case of wood-containing paper. The difference is that chemistry is added to mechanics during production. The combination of chemicals, pressure and heat crushes the lignin in the wood and makes it soluble. After this process, there is very little lignin left in the pulp and the fibres can be easily separated from each other. The result: pulp. As some of the cellulose and some of the hemicelluloses are dissolved in addition to the lignin, around 50 per cent of the wood used is lost in this production process.

What's more, the unwanted lignin is removed during chemical extraction, but never 100 per cent. For this reason, the remaining lignin is removed in subsequent bleaching processes. Any virgin fibre paper that contains less than 5 percent wood pulp can then be described as wood-free. The correct term, however, would be lignin-free paper. However, this is less effective in advertising - who knows lignin? Instead, the packaging is labelled "wood-free", even though it was originally also made from wood.

THE TRUE ECOLOGY OF FRESH FIBRE PAPER

In the production of wood-containing paper, 90 per cent of the wood is recycled. That doesn't sound bad at first. Little waste. However, more than two kilograms of wood are needed to produce one kilogram of commercially available virgin fibre paper, whether wood-containing or wood-free (around 200 sheets). The raw materials for virgin fibre paper are obtained from softwoods such as spruce and pine, but also from hardwoods such as birch, beech and eucalyptus. 80 per cent of this wood does not come from Germany, but is imported - including from the primeval forests of South America, one of the most species-rich and water-rich ecosystems on earth. The formation of monocultures jeopardises their biodiversity. Descriptions such as "free from tropical timber" are often misleading. This is because eucalyptus plantations, which supposedly provide ecologically clean raw materials, are often planted where tropical trees were previously cleared. 20 per cent of global timber harvesting is used for paper production.

In short: whether wood-free or wood-containing, the production of virgin fibre paper from wood is energy-intensive as well as water-, raw material- and chemical-intensive.

A partial success: FSC?

The FSC® seal stands for "Forest Stewardship Council®". It is an international certification system for more sustainable forest management. These forests and plantations are managed according to stricter ecological and social principles, among other things. This should help to ensure that the forests can be preserved in the long term. However, the idea that an FSC-certified forest is completely unspoilt nature is just as untrue as the idea that trees are only cut down sporadically in the forests in question. Nevertheless, FSC labels set the tone for how we should use resources: Consciously.

And now?

So what can we do if neither of these are sustainable alternatives? Instead of wood, existing raw materials can be used: namely waste paper. And 100 per cent of it. Recycled paper labelled with eco-certifications such as the "Blue Angel" guarantees this high ecological standard.

Recycled paper also contains wood, because all waste paper is used as a raw material, regardless of whether it contains wood or is wood-free. However, significantly lower quantities of water and energy are required during production than in the manufacture of virgin fibre paper. Here's a quick calculation: Let's assume an office employee prints an average of 25 pages a day. If this employee uses recycled paper instead of virgin fibre paper, he or she could make around eight pots of coffee with the energy saved. That makes the workforce happy! According to the "Initiative Pro Recyclingpapier", six sheets also save one litre of water. In total, around 70 percent less water and 60 percent less energy is used in production compared to virgin fibre paper. What's more, one tonne of recycled paper saves the amount of_CO2 that an average car emits over a distance of around 1,000 kilometres compared to virgin fibre paper made from cellulose.

Cover picture: Jace & Afsoon on unsplash