Segerdahl Group | Recycling Towards A Greener America

Recycling Towards a Greener America
Environmentalism is a passionate topic for virtually everyone these days. Not just for individuals, but for businesses as
well. At the corporate level, more and more companies are acknowledging the need to protect our planet's fragile
ecology by tackling crucial environmental issues head-on.

Effects and Causes
To begin with, we must face the fact that our environment
is in danger. The early effects of global climate change are already here. Rising ocean temperatures, melting polar ice caps, longer hurricane seasons with stronger storms, extended droughts, changing natural habitats endangering more species of wildlife, and much more.

The causes are also readily apparent. Levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases continue to rise dramatically
from such diverse sources as vehicle emissions, power generation plants and a wide range of other generators
of industrial waste. Compounding the problem is the
on-going destruction of some of nature’s most effective
CO2 control systems: our world’s forests.

Who can help alleviate these problems? We can.
And we must.

Environmental Responsibility
For those of us in the marketing and printing industries,
one of our most effective tactics is to make more and
better use of recycling. By using recycled paper, we can
significantly reduce the calamitous release of toxic dioxins into the environment. Use of recycled paper products can help reduce water pollution by up to 35% and air pollution by up to 75%.

And by supporting sustainable forests and responsible forestry, we can play an important part in helping to
restore our natural ecological balance.

Increasing Use of Recycled Paper
Electricity is one of the largest producers of CO2,
and mills use significantly less electricity to produce recycled paper than paper from virgin pulp...
helping to reduce our industry’s carbon footprint.
Elemental Chlorine-Free Bleaching (ECF)
Before it can be re-used, recycled paper fiber must
be de-inked. When de-inking is performed using chlorine-free bleaching, we can virtually eliminate dioxins from mill waste water.
Reforestation
The world’s forests perform an invaluable service
for the environment by breathing in harmful carbon dioxide and exhaling harmless oxygen. Today’s paper industry is helping to balance the harvesting
of trees with massive tree planting programs that
help ensure the sustainability of our delicate
eco-environments.