eprintid: 1537659 rev_number: 46 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/01/53/76/59 datestamp: 2017-01-30 13:35:03 lastmod: 2021-10-05 00:23:40 status_changed: 2017-10-03 09:35:21 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: van Ewijk, S creators_name: Stegemann, J creators_name: Ekins, P title: Global life cycle paper flows, recycling metrics and material efficiency ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C05 divisions: F44 divisions: C04 divisions: F34 keywords: Waste management, paper recycling, material flow analysis (MFA), pulp and paper industry note: © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Industrial Ecology, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of Yale University. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: Despite major improvements in recycling over the last decades, the pulp and paper sector is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental pressures. Further reduction of virgin material requirements and environmental impacts requires a detailed understanding of the global material flows in paper production and consumption. This study constructs a Sankey diagram of global material flows in the paper life cycle, from primary inputs to end-of-life waste treatment, based on a review of publicly available data. It then analyses potential improvements in material flows and discusses recycling and material efficiency metrics. The article argues that the use of the collection rate as a recycling metric does not directly stimulate avoidance of virgin inputs and associated impacts. An alternative metric compares paper for recycling (recovered paper) with total fibrous inputs and indicates that the current rate is at just over half of the technical potential. Material efficiency metrics are found to be more useful if they relate to the reuse potential of wastes. The material balance developed in this research provides a solid basis for further study of global sustainable production and consumption of paper. The conclusions on recycling and efficiency should be considered for improving environmental performance assessment methods. date: 2017-06-06 date_type: published publisher: Wiley-Blackwell official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12613 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green article_type_text: Article verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1204893 doi: 10.1111/jiec.12613 lyricists_name: Ekins, Paul lyricists_name: Stegemann, Julia lyricists_name: Van Ewijk, Stijn lyricists_id: PEKIN72 lyricists_id: JSTEG94 lyricists_id: SVANE69 actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette actors_id: BFFLY94 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Industrial Ecology issn: 1530-9290 citation: van Ewijk, S; Stegemann, J; Ekins, P; (2017) Global life cycle paper flows, recycling metrics and material efficiency. Journal of Industrial Ecology 10.1111/jiec.12613 <https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12613>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1537659/7/Ewijk_et_al-2017-Journal_of_Industrial_Ecology.pdf