Product Stewardship
We acknowledge and act on our responsibility to manage the environmental impacts of our products.
Newspapers and magazines are made from sustainable fibre resources. Newsprint in Australia is made from a chain of custody certified plantation timbers; no eucalypt or old growth is used; it is recoverable and recyclable; and re-usable.
Old newspapers can - and are - being used for:
- New newsprint (after de-inking)
- Cardboard and other paperboard for the coating on plaster sheeting for housing and construction
- Feedstock for industries producing egg cartons, home insulation and cat litter.
Product stewardship
Lead-based inks were removed from our printing processes in the 1970s, and ink formulations have continously been improved since then.
No old growth eucalypt has been used to make Australian newsprint since 1991. Now all Australian-made newsprint comes from plantation grown pine, or recycled fibre, and is chain of custody certified.
Any packaging is either avoided or has been carefully evaluated to minimise its environmental impacts. For example, life cycle studies have shown that polythylene film remains the most environmentally responsible method for home delivery of newspapers and magazines. It can be recycled where schemes exist, and it breaks down to harmless components. When disposed of to landfill it locks up carbon rather than immediately releasing it to the atmosphere, as biodegradable products do.
Newspaper Myths
Myth: Australians don’t recycle many newspapers
- 78% of newspapers are recycled in Australia, up from 28% at the start of 1990. Australians have the highest recycling rate of newspapers in the world.
Myth: Newspapers are not needed for recycling
- All newspapers collected for recycling are used to make new newsprint, packaging, or alternatively in building insulation.
Myth: Forests are harmed by making newspapers
- Regrowth plantation forests, together with recycled fibre, provide the wood fibre used to make newspapers. Thinnings, forest waste and undersize/bent/misshaped trees unsuitable for timber are generally those used to make newsprint.
Myth: Old growth forests are used to make newsprint
- No trees from old growth forests have been used in Australian newsprint manufacture since 1991.
Myth: The main benefit of recycling is saving forests
- An important benefit of recycling is reducing greenhouse emissions from the newsprint paper manufacture. It takes a sixth of the energy to make pulp from recycled fibres compared to virgin fibres. An average family recycling for a year saves greenhouse emissions equal to running a bedroom home for five days.
Myth: Inks are harmful
- Newspapers are safe to bury, burn or compost. No heavy metals (as defined in Australian Standard 1647, Part 3, 1982) are added to black or process colour inks. By 1977 all newspapers inks were modified to “low toxicity” and lead was discontinued as a pigment base.
Our achievements
1 Degree of change made by many adds up to big change.
Our journey
See our environmental journey to date.
Carbon
Our carbon footprint is falling. Find out how we did it.
Waste
We're the world's best newspaper recyclers. We can do more.
Water
Water is precious. We’re going to save it.
Product Stewardship
We actively manage the environmental impact of our products.