In order for a green product to truly become mainstream, it needs to be cost competetive, of equal or better quality, and widely available. It appears that that time has come for recycled copy paper. Whereas recycled copy paper used to be noticeably darker than conventional and had to be purchased from specialty retailers, WB Mason, Staples, OfficeMax and Office Depot all now offer 20 lb, 92 brightness copy paper made with 30%, 50% and 100% post consumer content. This was not true just a year ago. Similar conventional paper generally costs between $5 and $7 per ream (500 sheets) or $37 and $48 a case (5000 sheets). And while 100 percent recycled paper is still at the higher end of the price offerings, the 30% recycled paper is right in line with conventional paper, starting as low as $5.99/ream for Office Depot’s Green 30% Recycled EnviroCopy Paper and $44.98/case for Boise ASPEN 30 Recycled Copy Paper at WB Mason.
In short, there are now less excuses than ever to not purchase recycled content copy paper. It is indeed cost-competetive, of the most common weight and brightness, and available at the largest retailers of office products.