The Council is set to increase its green credentials - and save £25k per year - by introducing 100% recycled A4 copier paper this month (February).

Each year, more than 26.5million sheets of A4 copier paper are used by staff, costing the Council around £95,000 – nearly half the overall stationary budget.

Following a review of suppliers last year, the procurement team spotted an opportunity to introduce 100% recycled paper and make savings of around 15%.

Neil Biggar, Procurement Adviser, said: “We’re constantly looking for ways to make savings through better procurement arrangements and the new paper stock is helping us do just that while making the Council more environmentally friendly. The paper is high quality and already widely used by the NHS.”

Producing the recycled paper is also more environmentally friendly, so swapping to the new paper also helps the Council generate wider ‘green’ benefits each year, helping to save:

• More than 5000 cabers which, if laid end to end, would stretch from Denny to Bo’ness.
• Enough electricity to power over 250 homes in Falkirk for a year.
• The equivalent daily water usage for over 37k people – that’s the population of Grangemouth and Larbert combined.
• The equivalent C02 emitted by the average car driving around the world 17 times.

Neil added: “Introducing 100% recycled A4 copier paper is a move in a positive direction but, we’d always encourage employees to reduce their paper use wherever possible.”

Introducing the 100% recycled paper follows hot on the heels of the Council’s decision to ban single use plastics and introduce Eco to Go reusable cups which are on sale in the Municipal Buildings and Abbotsford House canteens.