Turns out something as innocuous and well-meaning as recycling your newspaper may end up producing some unintended consequences down the line.
Swiss researchers have discovered that toxic mineral oils from recycled newspapers can be absorbed by foods commonly packaged in cartons made from recycled cardboard. Some samples of pasta, rice and cereal had mineral oil content of up to 100 times higher than the agreed upon safe limit, according to the BBC.
As a result, U.K. cereal company Jordans has put an end to using recycled cardboard in its packaging. Kellogg's is working with its suppliers on an alternative, and Weetabix told the BBC it is exploring the use of recycled packaging that is free of recycled newspaper.
However, even switching to other types of packaging may not alleviate the problem, according to lead researcher Koni Grob, since the cartons are stored and shipped in larger cardboard boxes that also contain recycled newspaper content.
From the BBC:
"In one study for the German food ministry last year he and his colleagues tested a sample of 119 products bought from German supermarkets.
They found mineral oils passed easily through many of the inner bags used to keep food dry and fresh.
The longer a product stood on the shelves, the more mineral oil it was likely to absorb.
Dr Grob told the BBC: 'Roughly 30 products from these 119 were free of mineral oil.
'For the others they all exceeded the limit, and most exceeded it more than 10 times, and we calculated that in the long run they would probably exceed the limit 50 times on average and many will exceed it several hundred times.'"
Some studies have suggested a link between mineral oil exposure and cancer and internal organ inflammation in studies, but exposure would likely have to be long-term to pose a risk.
Image CC licensed by Flickr user mroach.
As I understand it, the
As I understand it, the situation in the US is different than the EU because we have clear standards and regulations set by USFDA -- and the paperboard industry verifies compliance. Having said that, we know that we need to manage consumer and business perceptions of the problem so that public relations do not trump science. More information at www.ppcnet.org/mosh
The right solution... I’m
The right solution...
I’m afraid that this news may be greeted - especially by those who oppose environmental sustainability efforts - with a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction of “See, I told you recycling was bad” and a fear or belief that it is recycling that is the problem.
In reality, this is actually an example of how and why we must think systemically about what we do and its environmental impact. For example, in the situation reported, it’s not the recycling that’s the problem – it’s the mineral oils in the newspaper ink. There are several possible solutions, including (a) using non-oil-based inks in printed newspapers – there are newspapers using these inks today; (b) exploring the use of recycled content that does not include oil-based-ink printed newspapers (as is reported in the article); and (c) increasing the amount of and accessibility of web- & electronic-based newspaper usage (powered by green energy, of course), rather than using printed paper copies at all.
Obviously, if there are human health concerns, it may mean curtailing this type of recycled content for use in food packaging in the near term, while solutions are developed that will allow the use of recycled content in cardboard food packaging to resume – the resource usage and embodied energy in recycled content is notably less than using virgin content. The larger point is that we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water based on this type of news; it just teaches us that we need to look at and resolve the systemic issues, not just the ones that are the most immediately obvious.