Pickler’s mission is to bring unbiased market average data to help you confirm or counter 'sustainable gut feelings'. But this sometimes results in surprises.

For example, recycled paper values (testliner) in Pickler often show worse CO2-eq results than their virgin counterparts (e.g. kraft).

Understandably, it feels counterintuitive…:

We teamed up with Dr. Ir. Joost Vögtlander (Technical University of Delft), board member of the Sustainability Impact Metrics foundation and creator and manager of the LCI database Idemat - to explain the difference.

First, it's important to distinguish between the two data types you can use in a Life Cycle Assessment: supplier-specific and market average data.

Supplier-specific data can be 1) in-depth (preferably) peer-reviewed Life Cycle Assessments or EPDs performed by a supplier for a product and its unique processes, materials, etc. Or 2) raw data from their facilities (specific emissions, waste, water use, etc.).

However, most producers don't have LCAs or EPDs - due to the expensive, time-consuming nature of doing these assessments. And many resellers don’t have access to (most or any) raw data from their suppliers yet when they start with their impact trajectory.

The solution to still make credible footprint calculations is market average peer-reviewed LCAs or EPDs for materials, processes, transport types, energy, etc others can use. We call these market average values - LCI data. Pickler works with the LCI database Idemat.

This means your specific supplier of recycled paper might score better (or worse) than the average scores from Idemat. Average scores are not a single verdict, they can be improved with better data from suppliers. But more about that later.

The latest EU market averages for paper and board production are provided by FEFCO and used by IDEMAT as input to calculated the footprint results.

Here are the three main reasons, which can also be viewed on the website of IDEMAT here;
virgin paper currently scores better on average:

A key aspect causing the impact difference is the energy source for the production processes.

Virgin kraft paper is often made in integrated paper mills near forests, which use wood waste for energy production. Since biogenic carbon is not counted (point 2) in kraftliner production, fossil carbon dioxide emissions are quite low (there is not much use of fossil fuels).

Where, recycled testliner is often made in paper mills positioned near cities, as this is where waste paper is collected. Due to their large demand in energy, their production is generally fueled with energy from the grid (gas/coal mix), instead of wood waste, causing a lot of fossil CO2 emissions.
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“Recycling paper stores carbon even longer than the short lifecycle for kraft paper. How can kraft be better?”

*Carbon storage in plant-based products is a tricky topic in LCA. But what kind of carbon are we talking about here?

Biogenic carbon comes from plants that capture an amount of carbon during their growth and release it back into the atmosphere when they decay or incinerate. After this happens, new trees capture the carbon again during their growth - and the cycle continues. Unlike fossil fuels, it’s a short carbon cycle - a circular system, where all carbon stored, is again released after a certain period.

This makes biobased (i.e. paper) products interesting: you temporarily take CO2-eq out of the atmosphere. Providing society with a temporary state to reduce more CO2 than we emit. Sounds like a great way to help us speed up the carbon reduction we need!

But how long should this temporary storage be - to enable us to implement effective reduction measures? And should this be reflected in LCA to offer ‘storage credits’?

*Also called carbon uptake or carbon sequestration in LCA language.

Idemat and Pickler follow the scientific consensus (following the IPCC, EcoInvent, and PEF) to apply the rule that biogenic carbon uptake = 0 in Life Cycle Assessments for products with a lifespan of less than 100 - like packaging products (see image below). This means only products that outlive 100 years, can offer the temporary state we need to realize extra carbon reduction.

For packaging products, no carbon uptake is counted, as it will be released at its end of life anyway. The lifespan of board and paper products is too short to contribute to a reduction in atmospheric CO2.

With average recycling rates of 2,5 in Europe, recycled paper products, too, release carbon back into the atmosphere within 100 years. Hence, there are no carbon storage credits applied in LCAs with biobased products from Pickler.

This means, Idemat applies FEFCO's values, but does not include their biogenic emissions (carbon uptake = 0).

Reflecting in point 1, wood waste is a biogenic energy source therefore counted as 0. And fossil energy sources are counted based on their emissions.

Source: https://www.ecocostsvalue.com/

On the contrary, FEFCO and many testliner producers apply carbon uptake in their LCAs. Especially, since many suppliers create cradle-to-gate LCAs (you calculate emissions until packaging leaves the factory gate). Cradle-to-gate LCAs with carbon uptake exclude the End-of-life stage emissions (release back into the atmosphere) in their calculations. This means, only the carbon storage credits are accounted for, resulting in negative carbon scores (see image below).

Source: https://www.ecocostsvalue.com/

Idemat and Pickler follow the PEF’s (EU’s Product Environmental Footprint Method) rejection of this calculation with carbon uptake. To showcase the complete picture and include carbon release at EOL, Pickler also always calculates the full lifecycle (cradle to grave).

In short: Both virgin paper and recycled paper don’t receive carbon uptake (temporary storage of CO2) credits in Pickler due to their short lifespan. This is why the energy mix and energy use in both production processes are so determining for their average carbon footprint differences.

"Recycled paper has to be better as you're preventing trees from being cut right?"

The carbon footprint isn't the only important impact category. In the eco costs model Pickler applies, we take into account several other impact categories. Including impact on biodiversity which is decided based on the midpoint category Land Use Change in the eco cost model.

Keeping forests untouched is extremely beneficial for biodiversity. Therefore, cutting trees for kraft causes more long-term biodiversity loss compared to reduced cutting of trees for testliner. This is reflected in Pickler’s impact category: impact on biodiversity. Here biodiversity eco-cost credits (eco-cost deduction) are given to testliner. This is showcased in Pickler's biodiversity impact category: 'Nature'.

This means that eco cost results for the impact category Nature score a lot better for testliner than for kraft.

As a result, the total eco costs of testliner or kraft are almost equal. (less than 5% difference in eco cost impact).

As the total eco costs for testliner and kraft are almost equal, it's important to look at the two individual categories: carbon footprint and nature (biodiversity).

If the sales argument is about the carbon footprint, kraft is still better on average. Even though Idemat expects testliner producers will start using cleaner energy on average soon.

If the sales argument is about biodiversity, testliner is the better option on average.

Read more about the topic of biodiversity here.

It is important to realize that this impact data for kraft and testliner used in Idemat is a European market average.

The market average for testliner applies an energy mix for production which is less clean than the one for kraft. This means, that if you're testliner supplier uses any kind of green energy, this will very likely have an immediate positive effect on their results in Pickler.

Hence there are two actions you can take should you want to improve your testliner scores in Pickler:

2. Ask your supplier for a Life Cycle Assessment for their testliner and send it to Pickler. Please note, the LCA needs to comply with anti-greenwashing regulations and Idemat's acceptance rules to be used in Pickler.