Digital BW, The Print

john kelly wrote:
> Richard, bamboo is inevitable for most paper. 
> 
> The world's biggest paper plant is in Southeast Asia:
> the company that bought the "Swiss" Ilford plant. The
> entire purpose, beyond cheap labor, is to use bamboo:
> ultra-renewable, a weed. 
> 
> Bamboo's environmental questions will have to do with
> bleaches (less than for wood or recycled cotton?), as
> well as shipment from SEA. 
> 
> As many already know, bamboo laminate is replacing
> hardwoods for flooring and much hardwood furniture.
> It's tougher than maple or the Asian/African native
> woods and is inherently beautiful. Environmental
> questions include glue and the energy used by
> factories.
> 
> Cotton is maximum-destructive, both in terms of soil
> depletion and in terms of wasted croplands (should be
> food...or perhaps hemp)...we like to think of cotton
> as earth-conscious but that's wildly off base.


There's more environmental control now in the old paper 
industries of Scandinavia, Canada, Europe and the USA 
including tree replant schemes + innovative bleach processes 
than there is in developing countries, whether the last use 
trees or any other fiber source. The green image often isn't 
a clear image. Companies will adapt to the laws and the 
enforcement of the laws if there are no cheaper, less 
restricted alternatives abroad. It will be hard to judge the 
environmental aspects of fibers on their organic source 
only. Pulp is shipped all over the world with different 
quality labels easy to control in the paper maker's intake 
labs. The environmental aspect is one that may not get the 
attention it needs right now with the increasing demand for 
commodities. That China expands its interests in African 
sources is a political and economic issue in the first place 
but Africa's usual state control and China's usual 
exploration of the earth looks like a bad combination. One 
may hope that it is better in South America and S.E. Asia. 
It is of course easy to preach from a continent that had its 
share of the world's wealth for a longer time and isn't 
preserving its own environment for much longer than 5 
decades now.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst


|  Dinkla Grafische Techniek  |
|     www.pigment-print.com    |
|             ( unvollendet )            |