Course:GRSJ300/2020/Print Papers
Project
Topic：Print Papers - Post-Consumer Waste paper (PCW) vs. Sugarcane Paper vs. Wheat Straw Paper
Member：Yifeng Liu，Kuizhang Gao，Yizhe Wei，Yuxi Cai
Affiliation：UBC Vantage College
Abstract
The objective of this project was to assess the sustainability of three different types of print papers (post-consumer waste paper (PCW), sugarcane paper and wheat straw paper). We analyzed this topic from three different indicators, social, economic and environmental. The data of social indicator was collected by an online survey, provided by SurveyMonkey, obtaining at least 40 users' preferences. For economic and environmental indicators, data was retrieved from online database, shopping website and literature review, which would be detailed later. Triple Bottom Line (TBL) assessment and four Weighted Decision Matrix (WDM) tables were conducted as the analysis methods. The results indicated that the PCW is relatively more sustainable among these three samples. These results might provide a valuable guidance for the selection of print papres of some enterprises.
Introduction
Print papers are used commonly in daily life. This large demand of consumption cused a series of challenges:
- Need a balance point of price and quality which could satisfy both businesses and consumers
- Need to find the relatively most environment-friendly one
- Users want to identify the more healthy and ergonomic one
To tackle these challenges faced, this project is expected to:
- Comprehensively analyze these three print papers
- based on analysis give a most sustainable solution
Social Aspect
| indicators | Price preference, Texture preference, Color preference |
|---|---|
| Data Collection Methods | Survey
(platform: SurveyMonkey)
4 closed-question (1 for each indicator, 1 for ranking these incicators)
|
| Data Analysis Method | Method: Triple Bottom Line
ApproachInstrument: Weighted Decision Matrix (WDM) |
This survey choose the three most common indicators in evaluations of paper, as the social indicators. As figure 4. shows, this survey also probed their priority in the eyes of consumers. The preformance of different print papers in these three indicators is an important reference of their grades on the WDM table. For example, most participants express that they are more prefer the white color print papers, so the PCW whose color is relatively whiter would get a relatively higher grade on the part of the indicator "color". We got samples of these three kinds of paper to evaluate these characteristics. Below is the WDM table.
| Indicator | Weight | PCW | Sugarcane Paper | Wheat Straw Paper |
| Price preference | 40% | 15% | 15% | 70% |
| Texture preference | 35% | 60% | 25% | 15% |
| Color preference | 25% | 35% | 15% | 50% |
| Total | 100% | 35.75% | 18.5% | 45.75% |
Based on the survey results, the conclusion is that wheat straw paper preforms best on the part of the social aspect, due to the lower market price and more acceptable color.
Environmental Aspect
| indicators | Recyclability, Energy consumption, Feedstocks utilization rate |
|---|---|
| Data Collection Methods | Review of available documents |
| Data Analysis Method | Method: Triple Bottom Line
ApproachInstrument: Weighted Decision Matrix (WDM) |
The three different indicators chosen as environmental aspect are recyclability, manufacturing energy consumption and feedstocks utilization rate. The evaluation of recyclability refers to [1] and [2], as they mentions, the longer the paper's fiber is, the more times it can be recycled. The values in Figure 4. are the proportion of the fiber lengths of these three feedstocks. The lengths are recorded in detail by [3], which mentions that the average length of sugarcane fiber is 2mm, while wheat straw is 1.5mm. Since PCW is the paper that has been recycled once, so we reasonablely reduce its fiber length to 1.25mm. The relative value of papers' manufacturing energy consumption is given by reference [4], which claims that normally, a wood pulp mill uses 10 times as much energy as a straw or a wheat pulp plant. The data of feedstocks' utilization rate is directly retrieved from references [4] [5] and [6], which gives the exact percentage of each feedstock, shown in Figure 6. above. Below is the WDM table.
| Indicator | Weight | PCW | Sugarcane Paper | Wheat Straw Paper |
| Recyclability | 30% | 26% | 42% | 32% |
| Manufacturing energy consumption | 50% | 5% | 47.5% | 47.5% |
| Feedstocks' utilization rate | 20% | 14.5% | 61% | 14.5% |
| Total | 100% | 13.2% | 48.55% | 38.25% |
As [7] notes, pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of all the world's energy use. therefore, the indicator manufacturing energy consumption should occupy the largest weight. Based on these results, the conclusion is that sugarcane paper preforms best on the part of the environmental aspect, due to the higher recyclability and lower manufacturing energy consumption.
Economic Aspect
| indicators | Manufacturing cost, Retail price, Sales volume |
|---|---|
| Data Collection Methods | Investigtion from shopping websites and online database |
| Data Analysis Method | Data Analysis MethodMethod: Triple Bottom Line
ApproachInstrument: Weighted Decision Matrix (WDM) |
The three different indicators chosen as economic aspect are manufacturing cost, retail price, sales volume. The data for these three indicators is investigated and retrieved from three different website, to make sure the validity and the independence of different indicators. Manufacturing cost depends very much on the raw material, so the prices of the feedstocks is regarded as the manufacturing cost, and it is collected from the database Food and Agriculture Organization [8], which provides the producer price of each agriculture product official data by country. Retail price are collected from Ecopaper, an online shopping website focusing on paper selling. The data of sales volume are collected from Amazon, the biggest online shopping website in the world, which would give the customer information about recent sales volume for its products. All the data shown in these three figures above, is the the relative ratio after averaging the data obtained. After group discussion of the priority of these three indicators, the results are that the sales volume has the highest priority and it is equivalent to the retail price as they directly reflect the profit for the seller, which is also similar to the opinion claimed by [9]. Below is the WDM table.
| Indicator | Weight | PCW | Sugarcane Paper | Wheat Straw Paper |
| Retail price | 40% | 38% | 22% | 40% |
| Sales volume | 40% | 93% | 3.5% | 3.5% |
| Manufacturing cost | 20% | 59% | 35% | 6% |
| Total | 100% | 64.2% | 17.2% | 18.6% |
PCW performs best on the part of the economic aspect, due to the low raw material price and the huge market share.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Based on the discussion of VANT 150 tutorial 6, the priority of the three indicators social, economic and environmental should be environmental, social, economic in order.
| Category of indicator | Weight | PCW | Sugarcane Paper | Wheat Straw Paper |
| Social indicator | 35% | 35.75% | 18.5% | 45.75% |
| Environmental indicator | 45% | 13.2% | 48.55% | 38.25% |
| Economic indicator | 20% | 64.2% | 17.2% | 18.6% |
| Total | 100% | 31% | 32% | 37% |
The conclusion of this analysis shows that:
- The most sustainable option is wheat straw paper
- Wheat straw also is the most popular option
- PCW can bring the enterprise most profit
One reason for the poor economic performance of the wheat straw paper might be that the accessability of this this product is too lower for consumers. It is suggested that enterprise should try to expand manufacture and market of wheat straw paper appropriately.
Limitations:
- The sample of this survey is too small, it may not be statistically significant (only 40 responses).
- There is no robustness check for the results, the error might be quite big.
- The indicators chosen might be reciprocal causation, the analysis doesn't test this.
Suggestions for improvment：
- Expand sample size
- Introduce a suitable statistical model
- Introduce a multicollinearity test to determine the causation
References
[1] C. C. Ray, “Through the mill,” 20-Dec-2010. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/science/21qna.html. [Accessed: 03-Apr-2021].
[2]“Recycled Paper,” Recycled Paper - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/recycled-paper. [Accessed:03-Apr-2021].
[3] Han, J. S., "Properties of nonwood fibers," presented at the Proceedings of the Korean society of wood science and technology annual meeting, Seoul, Korea, April, 1998.
[4]“Paper, Printing and the Environment: Australia: Earth Greetings,” earthgreetings. [Online]. Available: https://www.earthgreetings.com.au/earth-greetings-paper-printing-and-the-environment/. [Accessed: 03-Apr-2021].
[5] O. Omari, M. Cheung, R. Chen, and H. Chen, “Sugarcane bagasse paper versus wheat straw paper,” Open Collections, 04-Apr-2013. [Online]. Available: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/undergraduateresearch/18861/items/1.0108540. [Accessed: 03-Apr-2021].
[6] D. Kennedy and E. Recycling, “What is ‘Post-Consumer’ Paper?,” Do It Green! Minnesota, 13-Apr-2016. [Online]. Available: https://doitgreen.org/topics/business/what-post-consumer paper/. [Accessed: 03-Apr-2021].
[7]“Environmental impact of paper,” Wikipedia, 19-Mar-2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper#cite_note-89. [Accessed: 03-Apr-2021].
[8] FAOSTAT. [Online]. Available: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/PP. [Accessed: 07-Apr-2021].
[9] M. M. Dey, A. G. Rabbani, K. Singh, and C. R. Engle, “DETERMINANTS OF RETAIL PRICE AND SALES VOLUME OF CATFISH PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES: AN APPLICATION OF RETAIL SCANNER DATA,” Aquaculture Economics & Management, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 120–148, 2014.
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