Choosing Green Paper and Plastic Products

This section describes the types of green paper and plastic products, explains and compares important factors to keep in mind when choosing these items, and offers tips for conserving paper in schools.

Choosing Green Paper Products

When it comes to green paper products, Recycled Content is just the beginning. There are a number of other dimensions, such as bleaching without chlorine and de-inking of recycled paper and packaging, which should be considered when making a purchasing decision. For paper products, you can choose among four different Green Standards
(Environmental Choice, Green Seal, Chlorine Free or
EPA). The most significant criteria in selecting recycled paper are:

Recycled Content: Addresses and encourages the use of recycled content, either post-consumer or other recovered materials.

Minimum Post-Consumer Content: Specific minimum levels of post-consumer recycled varies between rating systems and product type, but a good minimum is 20-40 percent.

Elemental Chlorine Free: Pure chlorine may not be used to bleach the pulp.

Processed Chlorine Free (PCF): No compounds containing chlorine may be used in the bleaching process.

For recommended sources of these products, see Featured Green Products.

Choosing Green Plastic Products

Recycled plastic trash bags, also referred to as trash can liners, are widely available. The amount of recovered materials used in the manufacturing process is affected by the color, size, and thickness of the bag. EPA Recommended Post-Consumer Recycled Content for plastic is 10-100%. According to the EPA, there are three levels of recovered material content in recycled plastic products:

High density polyethylene (HDPE). A plastic resin used in products and packaging such as milk jugs, detergent bottles, margarine tubs, and garbage containers.
Low density polyethylene (LDPE). A plastic resin used for both rigid containers and plastic film applications such as plastic bags and film wrap.
Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). A plastic that is used predominantly in film applications due to its toughness, flexibility, and relative transparency.

What should you look for? LLDPE trash can liners typically have the best qualities of puncture resistance and thickness for school use. They are the ideal economical choice for larger garbage containers with refuse that has some sharp corners but is not extremely heavy.

Paper Conservation [Source Reduction]

The right style of paper towel and type of dispenser can have a significant impact on paper usage, waste, health, and costs. Consider:

Using hands-free paper hand towel dispensers to eliminate cranks and levers, which cuts down on the germs passed from person to person and protects occupant health.

Buying larger rolls of toilet paper, which reduces packaging waste, cost and labor needed to change the rolls. It also cuts down on complaints that the toilet tissue dispensers are empty.

Replacing multi-fold towel dispensers with roll towel products and hands-free dispensers, which not only eliminates waste, but saves money and labor for restocking.

Making sure to consider the costs for changing dispensers and finding economical means to address the change-over, using vendor assistance if possible.

Be careful about paper quality. A higher quality paper product can actually result in less product being used reducing both enviornmental impact and overall costs.

For more information on Paper Recycling and Conservation, see Resources and Tools.

Back to STEP 4: Use Green Paper and Plastic Products.