Use of Life Cycle Assessment to Develop Industrial Ecologies-A Case Study

Printer and letter quality paper represents a high-value component of the waste from commercial premises. Around large cities, exemplified by London, the paper flows are sufficiently large to sustain a dedicated logistics network and plant to recover and recycle graphics-quality paper. Analysis of the fibre flows around the supply system for paper recovery and recycling shows that, given the present low proportion of recycled fibre graphics paper used in the UK, other sources of fibre are not needed to maintain the supply and quality of the recycled material. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the recycling system shows that its environmental performance is dominated by energy use and greenhouse-warming emissions. Although the detailed results depend on how waste fibre and biomass are otherwise used, this emerges as a case in which recycling really does give environmental benefits. LCA also enables possible changes in the system for recovering and reprocessing paper to be examined, leading to new concepts for more sustainable local management of resource flows.