Buy environmentally preferable paper now

Paper consumption is using up our natural resources at an alarming rate. Paper does not merely involve our forests: its production pours toxic by-products into the air and water, while paper disposal helps to further crowd our landfills. Switch to recycled paper and use a green printer.

Printer/Copy papers and Notebooks
Look for these 100% PCW recycled papers in your local office supply store.

  • New Leaf Everest paper
  • Badger Envirographic paper
  • Eureka! 100

They are also available online at the following retailers:

GreenLine Paper  
Green Earth Office Supply  
Treecycle  

Other online sources for PCW and tree-free paper:

EcoGreenOffice.  
Ecopaper  
Good Common Sense  
Green Earth Office Supply  
Purchase 100% recycled, processed chlorine-free copy paper here and 25% of every dollar comes back to New Dream.

Green paper products from larger office supply stores

Office Depot

The company claims to be the first office supply company in the United States to create and track its own environmental goals annually. In other words, the company is increasing the number of environmentally friendly and sustainable products it sells in store and in its catalog. The bonus for you?—a wide variety to choose from!

In Office Depot look for:
  • Office Depot’s EnviroCopy paper—35 % PCW
  • Office Depot’s Eco-Friendly Binders—made of 100% recyclable materials.
  • Tops Second Nature Writing Pads/Notebooks---100% recycled, 40% PCW
  • 3M Post-It Recycled Notes—100% recycled, 30% PCW

Office Max

In Office Max look for:
  • NatureSaver Recycled Steno notebooks—60% recycled paper, 30% PCW
  • OfficeMax MaxBrite Laser/Inkjet/Multipurpose paper—30% PCW

Staples

The largest office supply chain in the United States offers several recycled-paper products.

In Staples look for:
  • Ampad Recycled Notebooks—50% recycled content, 20% PCW
  • Staples Recycled copy paper—30% PCW
  • Earthwise Recycled Composition Book—100% recycled.
  • Southworth 25% Cotton Recycled Paper

Reduce your paper needs

You can also save paper by using software that eliminates unneeded pages quickly and easily. Try a free trial of GreenPrint...

Green Printing Services

What to buy

  • Paper with the highest post-consumer recycled content.
  • Process-chlorine free or totally-chlorine free paper.
  • Paper products made from sustainably managed forests or from alternative “tree-free” fibers.

Why it’s important

Choosing post-consumer recycled and tree-free papers help preserve forests, cuts paper-manufacturing pollution, and reduces solid waste. Choosing process- and totally-chlorine free papers reduces emissions of dioxin, a known human carcinogen linked to endocrine, reproductive, nervous and immune system damage.

A few paper facts:

  • U.S. paper consumption is the highest in the world.
  • U.S. pulp mills consume 12,430 square miles of forests around the world each year.
  • Each American on average consumes more than 730 pounds of paper each year.
  • Americans use approximately 31.5 million tons of printing and writing papers each year, an amount requiring over 535 million trees and more than 12 billion gallons of oil to produce.
  • In the United States, more than 90 percent of the printing and writing paper comes from virgin tree fiber.
  • Nearly half the trees cut in North America are used for papermaking.
  • The U.S. paper industry is the country's largest single consumer of wood.
  • The pulp and paper industry ranks first in use of industrial process water, third in toxic chemical releases and fourth in emissions of the air pollutants known to impair respiratory health. Producing recycled paper causes 74 percent less air pollution, 35 percent less water pollution, and creates 5 times the number of jobs than producing paper from trees.

Learn more

Buying paper for your office or organization?
Get concrete guidelines on conserve paper and switch to preferable paper at work from the Center for a New American Dream's Responsible Purchasing Network.

Overview of paper issues:

Learn more about the Conscious Consumer Marketplace.

If you would like for your company to be listed in the Conscious Consumer Marketplace, please email Mary Jo Snavely or call 301.891.3683 ext. 110.