We, as ever, live in a world of certainties. In times gone by, it was a fact that the earth was flat and that kings had a divine right to rule. Plus ça change, as they say. I was in a meeting recently in which a colleague said that she hadn’t printed certain documents to help save the rainforest. Admittedly, the print-off would have run to several hundred pages, but it would have been handier with paper in hand. I had to bite my tongue and nod with the rest: another threatened teak saved.

That’s the trouble with a fact. Just because you repeat it again and again doesn’t necessarily make it true. The Paper Chain Forum of Belgium pikt het niet langer om als boeman voor het milieu afgeschilderd te worden – won’t put up any more with being painted as the bogeyman of the environment. The forum represents Belgian companies involved in the production of paper, from forest to recycling.

What has put the forum’s nose out of joint are claims by firms that sending out e-communications instead of paper folders or bills saves tens of thousands of trees. Such misleading claims ignore the fact that paper is made from houtpulp – wood pulp and oud papier – old paper. And the houtpulp comes from trees cut to make space for stronger trees: om een bos goed te beheren is zoiets onontbeerlijk – this is essential to manage a forest well.

Then there are the cuttings from trunks for furniture and planks. As for oud papier, it makes up at least 58% of new paper products. The conclusion is clear: minder papier redt geen enkele boom – less paper doesn’t save a single tree. Which makes claims such as this one rather silly: elk jaar worden 6.275 bomen opgeofferd aan de productie van onze papieren facturen – each year 6,275 trees are sacrificed for the production of our paper invoices.

But what about the rainforests? Hout uit tropische oerbossen wordt niet gebruikt voor pulp – Wood from tropical primaeval forests is not used for pulp, which might surprise my colleague. Ah, but what about the CO2 I hear you cry. Well, apparently, paper stores more CO2 than its production gives off.

After we take down the tree and pile the cards, giving them one last look, will we rush to gaze again at our e‑cards? I doubt it.

www.paperchainforum.org