<b>Magazines Targeted for Recycled Content</b>

Several environmental groups are banding together to put pressure on magazine publishers to use more recycled-content paper in their periodicals.

A study being released May 23 by the Independent Press Association, San Francisco, Conservatree, San Francisco, and Co-op America, Washington, claims that consumer magazines not only fail to use recycled-content paper, but also engage in wasteful production, with large percentages of such magazines going unsold at newsstands. The three organizations have conducted the study together under the name The PAPER (Printing Alternatives Promoting Environmental Responsibility) Project.

“The U.S. magazine industry is responsible for wasteful deforestation that destroys over 30 million trees, which is enough to cover a major U.S. national park,” The PAPER Project claims in a press release.

The group has reportedly chosen Conde Nast Traveler magazine as a first target to place pressure upon to increase its recycled content paper percentage.

Magazine publishers have generally resisted using recycled-content paper either for price reasons or because they believe readers expect maximum brightness and contrast between paper and ink on periodical printed pages.