CEPI Critical of Shrink Campaign

The Shrink campaign, launched earlier this week by the European Environmental Paper Network, a group of 50 nongovernmental organizations, has been met with criticism by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI).

The goal of the Shrink campaign is to help 20 major European companies reduce the amount of paper they use unnecessarily as a means of reducing the paper industry’s total carbon footprint.

However, Brussels-based CEPI states in a press release that the “campaign misleads public perceptions by purposely mixing global and European issues reducing all problems to paper production.”

           
Teresa Presas, managing director of CEPI, says, “Nobody can disagree that there is an element of waste in our current consumption patterns, and we applaud the NGOs for addressing it.” She continues, “But we would repeatedly encourage the NGOs to work with us to ensure that this waste is not lost but recycled so that paper can increasingly be produced from recovered fibers and that society as a whole plays it part.”

According to CEPI, European pulp and paper companies have comprehensive programs to reduce waste throughout their value chains. The organization also point out that recovered fiber currently makes up 50 percent of the industry’s raw materials, with the other 50 percent coming from residues from wood used in saw mills and tree thinnings.

CEPI also cites the International Energy Agency’s claim that while the pulp and paper industry is energy intensive, it is not carbon intensive in light of its significant use of biomass.

“We cannot accept that these NGOs attribute to the European paper industry such issues as tropical deforestation and CO2 emissions in quantities three times higher than global aviation,” Presas says. “Focusing on paper consumption is not going to stop climate change. It is essential that these 50 NGOs take their responsibility seriously, drop the propaganda war and work constructively with industry and consumers to change consumption patterns across all products and services.”