Recycled vs. Regular Printer Paper

In the picture above, can you tell which piece of paper is recycled and which isn’t?

Recycled paper has not been given the best reputation.  I used to think of recycled paper as a light brown color, and very thin and weak.  To this day, I still think of newspaper when I think of recycled paper.   

However, many companies are beginning to introduce recycled printer paper, and one of the pieces of paper in the picture above is an example of this.  I stumbled upon this product about a year ago and have been using it ever since.  The product: Georgia-Pacific Recycled Copy & Print. This post is comparing Georgia-Pacific’s Recycled product with a basic piece of printer paper, without recycled content.

Now, before I go too far, I just want to make one thing clear: Georgia-Pacific’s product does not contain 100% recycled material.  In fact, only 30% of it is post-consumer waste.  Although this is a bit discouraging, it is better than other products, which come from freshly cut trees.

The Test

Compared with the non-recycled paper, Georgia-Pacific’s product feels thicker, which isn’t a bad way to prevent tears in the paper.  Georgia-Pacific’s product wrinkled less when squeezed between two fingers with the same amount of force.  Inks show up about the same on both sheets of paper.  I’ve found through experience that Georgia-Pacific’s products are less likely to be accidentally ripped out of three-ring binders due to use than regular printer paper. 

So is the recycled paper as good as or better than regular printer paper?  Overall, I feel that the recycled paper stays together better with wear and tear.  However, I still have two complaints.   First, only 30% of the paper is post-consumer waste.  I would like to see Georgia-Pacific introduce a product that is 100% recycled; this would be a great advancement and be an excellent way to head toward a sustainable future.  Second, it comes in plastic packaging, which greatly limits its appeal as a sustainable product.  The package is marked as recyclable, but many cities don’t have programs for plastic packages.  I would like to see Georgia-Pacific sell the product in more environmentally friendly packaging, such as paper.

All in all, I would recommend Georgia-Pacific’s paper.  It is just as durable, if not more, than regular printer paper, and only costs $1 more.  However, it still has a long way to go before it can be considered “Practical Sustainability.”

By the way, the recycled paper is the piece on the left in the picture above.

The picture below shows the results from my wrinkle test, arranged the same as the photo above.

Test Scores

•  Sustainability
• Georgia-Pacific: 7
• Regular printer paper: 4

• Practicality
• Regular printer paper: 10
• Georgia-Pacific: 9

• Overall
• Georgia-Pacific: 8
• Regular printer paper: 7

Georgia-Pacific                             regular printer paper