FSC® Friday, Sustainable Forest Management Day
The FSC® Friday is a project started by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization dedicated to the protection and sustainable management of forests and woodlands, aiming to certify the products coming from them, such as cellulose for paper. This authority grants a certification that attests to the responsible management of forests and the sustainability of the final products.
Paper from FSC®-certified forests has less impact on the environment. Although it looks and feels identical to other papers, its cellulose comes from forests managed with respect for the environment and biodiversity, as well as for local populations and workers.
FSC® and Algacarta, Sendo's choice
For its communication materials, Sendo has chosen a particular type of FSC® certified paper, named Algacarta. As the word itself suggests, Algacarta is produced using algae. Below we will better discover its origin, and the Italian-based technology behind its creation.
In the Nineties the Venice lagoon ecosystem was at risk, due to an unnatural proliferation of algae, which were causing the eutrophication of that fragile system. At that time, due to water pollution, the excessive presence of nutrients in the water and the prolonged summer heat, the algae that had always been present in that lagoon had begun to increase massively, with no solutions available for this imbalance.
From excess algae to paper: the upcycling process
Excess algae in the lagoon were being taken out and put in landfills, but the space for disposal was quickly running out, and another kind of solution was needed: one also able to encompass the use of excess algae, not simply their disposal. And this is where the story of Shiro AlgaCarta begins, an Italian patent by the company Favini, which has managed to integrate the excess algae from the Venetian lagoon into paper production. In this industrial process, the excess algae are dried and pulverized, and then mixed together with other FSC® certified vegetable fibers.
The result is a paper produced in a sustainable way, through the upcycling of a waste material: algae. Moreover, given the presence of chlorophyll in the paper mixture, over time it tends to become whiter rather than the opposite.
Algacarta and FSC® paper are very common on the market today: buying them means making a conscious choice, making a difference through our daily choices of responsible consumption.
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