We believe print can be a sustainable and responsible medium and we conduct our business with that goal in mind.

Paper

We source all of our paper from responsibly managed forests and producers that have met a strict set of environmental and socially responsible standards.

Certifications are used to ensure paper is produced from environmentally friendly sources. The key ones are:

• EU Ecolabel - an EU label of environmental excellence awarded to products and services that meet high environmental standards
• FSC - the Forest Stewardship Council is a global non-profit organisation that sets the standards for what is a responsibly managed forest
• PEFC - an international non-profit, non-governmental umbrella organisation that endorses national forest certification systems
• Blue Angel - the ecolabel of the German government.

We offer a wide range of paper types. Every paper type we use has at least two of these certifications:

• 45gsm salmon - made by Holmen from a mix of mechanically pulped virgin fibre and recycled paper. FSC and PEFC certified
• 52gsm recycled - our most popular traditional paper is 100% recycled and made from UK-sourced recycled material. It’s made in Kings Lynn by Palm Paper only 60 miles away from our printer. FSC, PEFC and Blue Angel certified
• 55gsm improved - made by Stora Enso from renewable virgin fibre. EU Ecolabel and FSC certified
• 70gsm bright - made by Arctic Paper from chemically pulped, virgin fibre. FSC and PEFC certified
• 70gsm improved - made by SCA from mechanically pulped, virgin fibre. FSC and PEFC certified
• 90gsm improved - made by UPM from chemically pulped, woodfree material. EU Ecolabel and FSC certified.

Toners and inks

Our digitally printed newspapers use toner made by Xeikon with 100% certified green energy and contained in fully recyclable containers. It is free from solvents and VOCs (volatile organic compounds), is odourless and food-approved. It is also de-inkable, meaning the newspaper can be completely recycled to create new newsprint.

Our traditionally printed newspapers use standard coldset web offset inks made by SunChemical. As there are no vegetable inks developed for newspaper presses these are oil-based inks. They are VOC free.

Energy consumption

We have recently increased our use of solar panels to generate over 100MWh of electricity per year in our print warehouse. This produces enough power to print all our newspapers.

Packaging

We’re working towards eliminating all plastic packaging from our deliveries. We’ve trialled this with digital orders in the UK, by removing plastic wrap, strap and packing tape. Soon, we’ll be doing this with our digital orders worldwide.

For our traditional orders, we are looking at innovative ways to remove packaging without damaging newspapers. For example, when we use boxes to ship your newspapers, we will place them loosely in the box rather than strapping and wrapping them in plastic (we do that for our larger digital orders). We are now offering compostable polybags and we are looking at compostable pallet wrap in the future.

Reducing waste

Printing newspapers can produce waste as we often run tests to produce the best results. We recycle all our waste paper.

Continuous sustainability

We are a member of Two Sides, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to minimise and reduce the environmental impact of business activities and contribute to sustainable development.

We’ll continue trying to reduce our environmental impact but if you have any specific questions please email us at newspaperclub@newspaperclub.com.