ABSTRACT
Judging the environmental friendliness of products using simple arguments such as the rate of recycled fiber may lead to errors of judgment. The reasons for this are many; most of them, however, relate to the generic nature of the overall environmental impacts of products. There are relations between different economic sectors involved whose implications cannot be directly foreseen because of their complexity For example, reducing primary fiber consumption in paper production implies a reduced energy production from bark, lignin, and waste paper. However, since the overall energy demand is not reduced by the same proportion, additional energy production is needed. In our example, the current average Western European mixture of fuels was used for this purpose. The con-sequences can be seen as an increase in SO2 emissions, and also a significant increase in the consumption of nonrenewable energy sources.
