How can recycled paper (testliner) be worse than virgin (kraft)?
This is mainly because recycled paper is often produced using regular grid energy, which has higher CO₂ emissions, while virgin kraft is typically made using energy from wood leftovers, which counts as much lower CO₂.
So even though the material is recycled, the average energy mix behind its production can lead to a higher footprint. When comparing these energy differences, virgin kraft can sometimes show a lower overall carbon footprint.
How can products with multiple materials score better than mono-material products?
A product made from more than one material can sometimes have a better environmental score than a mono-material product. This may seem counterintuitive, but it comes down to how different materials are produced and how their impacts are calculated.
Each material has its own environmental footprint, depending on factors such as:
How the raw material is extracted
How much energy is needed for processing
The efficiency of large-scale industrial production
In Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), materials are not treated as “good” or “bad” simply based on whether they are mono- or multi-material. Instead, each material is assessed individually using market-average data, and the total impact is calculated by combining the impacts of all materials used in the product.
This means that:
A mono-material made from a relatively energy-intensive material can score worse
A multi-material product made from lower-impact materials (or smaller amounts of higher-impact materials) can score better
In other words, material choice and production processes matter more than the number of materials alone. Mono-material designs can be beneficial for recyclability, but they do not automatically result in a lower environmental impact.
How FSC-certified wood can cause more harm to biodiversity more non-certified
FSC-certified wood is meant to protect biodiversity, but sometimes it can unintentionally cause more harm than non-certified plantation forestry. Certified forests often produce less wood per area, meaning more land is needed to meet demand, impacting a larger area of biodiversity.
In contrast, plantation forests have a higher impact on smaller areas but leave more land untouched. While certified forests aim for low biodiversity impact, managing forests for both wood production and biodiversity is challenging, especially with the removal of deadwood, a crucial part of many ecosystems.