Recycling Frequently Asked Questions

Does the National Geographic Society use recycled paper in its magazines, books and other printed material?

National Geographic has given the subject of using recycled paper a lot of thought and has done extensive research on the matter over the years. The subject is exceedingly complex. While we use recycled fiber in some aspects of our product production, including corrugated cartons, direct mail pieces and books, we do not currently use such fiber in any of our consumer magazines, with the exception of the heavier paper we use on the cover of National Geographic magazine.

We believe completely in the importance and value of recycling materials of all sorts, and in the value of recovering paper fiber in particular, but after thorough research and having field-tested the alternatives, we’ve concluded that using recycled fiber in our magazines would do more harm to the environment than good. The important question to consider when discussing recycling is: What is the best use of recovered and recycled fiber?

In the process of fiber recovery, waste paper is dissolved in water to form what the industry calls “slurry,” in which wood fibers float to the surface and are skimmed off to be reused. The complication is that the “contaminants” in the waste paper, such as ink, adhesive, coating and binders, have to be separated from the recovered pulp. For ink, which is oil based, or toner, which is fused onto the fibers, additional, often toxic, chemicals need to be used to dissolve or separate the ink or toner from the fibers. It is also very likely that these fibers will need to be re-bleached. While these procedures can be done, should we go through the expense, both in additional dollars and environmental toxins, of cleaning used and recovered fiber to the point where it is clean enough to make new white paper? Does it not make more sense to minimize the recovery and cleaning cycle, thereby reducing impact on the environment and costs, and use that fiber in products that do not have to be as white or clean, such as newsprint, fiber board, corrugated medium, toilet paper, packaging, wall board, etc.?

All paper waste recovered in North America today is spoken for, and it is being used largely in the manufacture of the kind of lower-end products noted above. At present, demand for recycled fiber in the U.S. actually outstrips the supply. The argument some have made for National Geographic to use recovered fiber in its magazine printing paper is that demand for recycled fiber needs to be created, and using recycled fiber in magazines creates such demand. As the world’s current available supply of recovered fiber is being fully utilized—and demand is growing—creating demand is obviously not the issue. The larger issue is making more fiber available for recovery by recycling more, so that the growing demand can be met. Just over 50 percent of paper and paperboard in the U.S. is recycled, while much of the rest finds its way into landfills—so there is substantial opportunity to improve the recycling rate.

On the question of conserving trees, National Geographic is in full agreement that forests need to be saved and protected. We need to grow new ones, too, and wood should be sourced from these new forests. National Geographic will not purchase paper from suppliers that source their material from old-growth forests. That said, using recycled fiber in magazines is not a tree-saving issue. The fact is that the worldwide demand for wood fiber for use in paper products is growing, and it is not because of magazines and newspapers; it is growing due to the demand for other categories of consumer products where the use of less clean fiber is very practical. If we use recovered fiber to make magazine paper just to be politically correct (and remember that it is economically and environmentally more taxing to do so), we in effect divert such fiber from being used in the products where it does make more economic and environmental sense, where the cleanliness of the fiber is not important, and where demand already exists. While we could make the decision to use some recovered fiber in our magazine paper, we believe that more new trees would then be cut to augment the fiber supply needed to meet the demands for toilet paper, corrugated board, and the like. We believe the real issue is where and how we use recycled fiber in order to have the least environmental impact.

Trees are a renewable resource. More must be replanted than are cut in order to be “sustainable.” People also can reduce demand for disposable products such as paper plates, cups, towels and the like by choosing readily available reusable alternatives. And National Geographic is embracing a future in which emerging digital technologies provide us with alternative ways to produce high-quality content in new forms that will appeal to and engage our members, while reducing our dependence on paper. That transition is already underway, but it will take time.

National Geographic takes very seriously our role in illuminating the issues that confront the planet as well as modeling best practices in our own activities. Our Chief Sustainability Officer Hans Wegner and the Society’s senior management team are convinced that we are doing the right thing by not using recovered fiber in our main magazine products, based on our exhaustive research and on studying this problem from a holistic perspective. But we will continue to monitor the global marketplace and to formulate our policies based on new information and evolving technologies.

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