Are recycled paper towels as absorbent?

Does a recycled paper towel work as well as a virgin paper towel?

You may think the age-old question is “to be or not to be”, but times have changed. The question now is: recycled or virgin paper towel? And the crux of the matter seems to lie in softness, absorbency, and strength.

So, we set about to find out if a recycled paper towel is as absorbent as a paper towel made from the pulp of a tree chopped down specifically to be made into a single use item that we can throw away after drying out hands or cleaning up a mess.

The answer? Well according to our research and that of the peer reviewed journal BioResources, paper towels made of 100% recycled fibres are less absorbent. Recycled fibres are shorter in length than virgin fibres, which makes them more susceptible to breakage. They are also less flexible and stiffer than virgin fibres, so the resulting paper towel is less soft.

However, I do not think that is reason enough to only buy paper towels from virgin pulp.

Recycled fibres give post-consumer materials such as recycled office paper or newspaper and a mix of materials, like off cuts from printers, waste packaging discarded after shipping or the waste materials from timber processing a second life. Recycled fibres do not require the cutting down of trees just so we can dry our hands, once.

The manufacturing of recycled paper towels is less damaging to the environment than using freshly milled trees and recycling helps to keep waste out of landfills. LetsGoGreen claims that if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fibre paper towels with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees. That’s a lot of trees!

The NRDC reports that making tissue products from 100% virgin fibre generates three times more CO2 than recycled fibre.

Using recycled paper towels can also reduce chemical pollution. Many recycled paper towels are Totally Chlorine Free (TCF).

Check the numbers

Due to a lack of credible certification however, recycled paper might not even contain a very high level of reused fibres. Packaging should identify what percentage has been recycled. The EPA recommends buying paper towels that contain at least 40-60% post-consumer recycled pulp.

The best bet is for consumers to check percentages, so you know how much of a second life your newly purchased paper towels are providing.

FSC certification

Many products in New Zealand come with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification which shows where companies have sourced materials from

FSC RECYCLED means all fibre used in the paper towel is recycled material. However, up to 15% can be from manufacturing scrap that’s put back into products, such as faulty product (mis-cut paper towels).

Many paper towel products in Aotearoa use FSC MIX: products that are a mixture of timber and fibre with a minimum of 70% from an FSC-certified source.

FSC-certified materials are from certified forests, recycled materials, and/or FSC-controlled wood.

PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certification

PEFC is a third-party endorsement with two classifications: PEFC Certified, where at least 70% of wood comes from PEFC-certified forests and controlled sources, and PEFC Recycled, where at least 70% of material is from recycled sources and controlled sources.

Recycled paper towels are made of recycled material, not straight from a tree, so your best sustainable option would be to go for a paper towel that is unbleached, TCF, and FSC certified.

At INSINC, we believe in the benefits of recycled paper and have an increasing number of recycled paper products, such as paper towels, available for your business.

If your business is already buying recycled paper products, then good on you, because you are making a difference. If you want to keep doing good at your business or place of work, call 0508 467 462 to discuss the continued use of toilet paper, tissues, serviettes and paper towels from recycled paper rather than from freshly logged trees.