Why We Use Unbleached Totally Chlorine-Free (TCF) Paper

Wood pulp, in its natural state is brown or beige. Papers made from such pulp – for example brown paper bags, and most cardboard boxes – are also brown. For years, most paper was subjected to a bleaching process to make it white, using elemental chlorine (Cl), usually in the form of chlorine gas, with horrible environmental consequences.

Today, this process is no longer used in most of Europe. Much of the North American pulp and paper industry no longer uses elemental chlorine (Cl), but there remain a number of paper mills in North America which continue to do so, despite the documented environmental damage that this process engenders. Today, the most common form of bleaching paper is no longer with the use of elemental chlorine (Cl), but instead with the use of chlorine derivatives, principally chlorine dioxide (ClO₂). Paper bleached with chlorine dioxide is often referred to as “elementally chlorine-free” (ECF). Though bleaching with chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) is far preferable to bleaching with elemental chlorine, it is still environmentally harmful, because chlorine derivatives still produce toxic chlorinated organic compounds, such as chloroform, a known carcinogen.

Totally chlorine-free (TCF) paper is paper which is either unbleached, or bleached using no chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Bleached papers which are totally chlorine-free (TCF) have been bleached with oxygen, ozone and/or hydrogen peroxide. These bleaching methods have none of the environmental impacts of chlorine chemistry.

If You Care paper is unbleached and always totally chlorine-free (TCF).