Stubbins Mill, in Lancashire, is quite a sight. Like a Roald Dahl chocolate factory, there are steaming chimneys, rows of warehouse-style buildings and huge pipes running between them. To get a closer look I’m asked to tog up in a luminous jacket, goggles and hobnail boots. Clad this way, the chances that I’ll be sucked down one of the swirling tubes, like Augustus Gloop, are presumably reduced.
Sadly, there is no chocolate here. You could argue that the final product plays a more essential part in daily life, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s loo paper. Every day this factory produces 42 huge bales, 3m (10ft) high, which are cut into 7,200 individual loo rolls. But there’s a twist; they are made from recycled waste paper. The same material that fed the fortunes of the world’s wealthiest self-made woman, the Chinese billionaire Cheung Yan, as reported last week.
About 70 per cent of all toilet paper sold in the UK is made from virgin wood pulp. Given that we use 22 billion rolls every year, that’s an awful lot of trees felled for a product that can’t be recycled. A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) last week criticised the £5.7 million tissue industry for its continued use of virgin pulp to create luxury loo rolls. “At a time when the world’s natural forests are under increasing pressure, it’s essential that retailers should offer environmentally-friendly tissue products,” said Beatrix Richards, of the WWF.
In the Stubbins yard the recycling process is in full swing. A lorry is being unloaded, contributing its bundles to the 125,000 tonnes of waste paper that arrive here every year. Most of it comes from office and council collections. From this yearly deluge 104,000 tonnes of toilet paper, tissues and kitchen roll are made and sold on the high street. If you’ve bought paper made by Nouvelle, the UK’s top-selling recycled toilet paper, Revive, Sainsbury’s own recycled version, or similar recycled tissue products made by Waitrose, you’ll have had a loo-side close encounter with the stuff.
And it may not have been as bad as you expected. Everyone knows that we like to pamper ourselves, rear ends included. Those sensitive needs are taken seriously at Stubbins. One of the first things that Mark Jackson, the technical manager, explains is the importance of using the right kind of waste paper. “We only pulp the highest grades, 60 per cent of which is post-consumer waste,” he says. That’s stuff that has come from offices and homes, as opposed to “ virgin” paper, such as book offcuts. “If we used bottom-grade stuff, such as cardboard, the final product would be too rough.”
To someone fresh to the lumps and bumps of paper recycling, talk of grades might be baffling, but I’ve already spent the morning at a nearby waste-paper processor in Blackburn. There, the principle job is to sort paper according to quality. As a rule of thumb, the lower the grade, the greater the supply of the stuff. Mixed paper, including junk mail, which comes mostly from council collections, is one example of a low-grade material. Most of it ends up as low-grade cardboard used for the inside of loo rolls. Or it is shipped abroad.
This point gets us to the bottom of paper recycling. Filling our green bins is only half the story. Creating a demand for the contents is as important. This is the main reason why we should buy recycled products, according to Jackson. “People are good at collecting waste to recycle but there’s no point unless you’re going to complete the cycle by buying the stuff that has been made from it,” he says (see Where to get green paper, below).
Easy to say, but would we want to buy it? And how on earth does it turn from yesterday’s e-mail into today’s gleaming reams of bog roll? To find out I leave behind the delivery yard and head into the whirring belly of the mill. It smells bizarrely of bread, and it’s stinking hot. My goggles steam up. Jackson is shouting over the roar of machinery. “There are three major stages to making new paper from old stuff,” he says. “Pulping, de-inking and drying.”
In the the first stage the paper is piled into what looks like a vast Kenwood mixer and combined with water. For 20 minutes, six tonnes of the mixture slosh around, turning into slurry. Jackson tells me that 30 per cent of the water used in the factory is recycled; the rest comes from a nearby river.
From here the mixture is swept along pipes to the next room, where contaminants are filtered out. This is the bit that anyone who has puzzled over whether to bother recycling a magazine with staples in it or an envelope with a plastic window should note. Jackson assures me they don’t pose too much of a problem — they are filtered out of the mixture — but the fewer there are the more efficient the process.
Then comes de-inking. By adding soap to the mixture, ink from the paper’s previous life is removed. “It works because inks don’t like being in a liquid so they cling to the bubbles and rise to the surface,” says Jackson.
The most controversial stage in recycling paper is bleaching, referred to here as “decolourising”. Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) hasn’t been used at the mill for ten years, after evidence emerged that it was polluting waterways. Still, sceptics say that using any chemicals cuts the eco-credentials of recycling paper.
“You can’t make paper without them, recycled or not,” responds Jackson. “We’re always looking for greener alternatives and we run the ones we use past the Environment Agency.” The only way of making the paper totally chemical-free would be to sell it in its brownish-grey state. And while there’s nothing wrong with brown bog roll — it flies off the shelves in Germany — I can’t see it taking off here.
To my relief, the jumbo reams that emerge from the drying room, after being blasted with 150C (302F) air, are bright white. Freshly baked loaves of loo paper, I can reveal, look good enough to eat.
While they might not get your endorphins flowing like Roald Dahl’s chocolate factory treats, users can expect a virtuous glow. And I’m sure you can guess where it will start.
WHERE TO GET GREEN PAPER
Recycled Paper Supplies
Along with standard stationery, you’ll find imaginative card-making materials here — ideal for kids to paint at Christmas — and reusable envelope labels made from 100 per cent post-consumer paper waste. We need to use more of this as its quality is lower and so is less in demand (£2.75 for 50 re-usable labels; www.recycled-paper.co.uk).
Remarkable
Stylish stationery alternative sold in high street chains such as John Lewis, Waterstones and W H Smith. All products shout the recycling message loud and clear. Notebooks and pencil cases say: I use to be a juice carton or I used to be a car tyre. (Blue ruler made from recycled packaging 58p; www.remarkable.co.uk)
WWF Earthly Goods
Get ahead on your Christmas list by buying Christmas cards and wrapping paper made from recycled paper. (Ten Christmas cards £3.95; www.shop.wwf.org.uk)
Paperback
Encourage your office to contact this paper merchant, which has been selling recycled paper since 1983. It will also deliver to your home but there is a £7.50 delivery charge on orders under £50. It was the first to be awarded Forest Stewardship Council certification. It offers next-day service to customers within the M25 from its East London base. (Reams of white office paper start at £2.50; www.paperback.coop)
The Green Stationery Company
Already supplying more than 2,000 companies in the UK with green office materials, this company covers all aspects of office life. As well as recycled paper products, you can buy Fairtrade tea and coffee. If you spend less than £100, there is a £4.95 delivery charge. (Colourful box file made from recycled cardboard £6.50; www.greenstat.co.uk)
Recycled or non-recycled: the bottom line
Isn’t recycled toilet paper prickly and unpleasant? We found out. Eco-Worrier awarded greenie points (stars out of five), while Louise Yates and Tom Dulake were brave enough to blind-test.
SAINSBURY’S SUPER SOFT OWN BRAND TOILET TISSUE
Non-recycled: One Star
Tom’s favourite. Held together impressively after a big nose blow
Comfort factor 4/5
Verdict Not very eco-friendly (39p a roll; www.sainsburys.co.uk)
WAITROSE OWN BRAND RECYCLED TISSUE
Recycled: Four Star
Louise was convinced it wasn’t recycled. She gave it full marks for wiping powers and durability
Comfort factor 3/5
Verdict No one will guess you’re a closet eco-warrior (37p a roll; www.waitrose.com)
ANDREX TOILET TISSUE
Non-recycled: Two Star
The softest of the bunch but, after a big nose blow, it fell apart, leaving flecks in Tom’s beard
Comfort factor 5/5
Verdict Can’t fault it on texture (53p a roll; from supermarkets)
TESCO VALUE TOILET TISSUE
Non-recycled: Three Star
The modern equivalent of school, greaseproof-paper-style, loo roll Comfort factor 3/4
Verdict Good for students (10p a roll; www.tesco.com)
NOUVELLE RECYCLED TOILET TISSUE
Recycled: Four Star
Soft quilted paper, with great absorbancy
Comfort factor 4/5
Verdict Doesn’t seem recycled (41p a roll; www.nouvelle-environmentmatters.co.uk)
