That results in over 9 billion magazines being incinerated or landfilled yearly. The use of virgin fiber to produce paper for magazines has other detrimental effects on the environment. The chlorine or chlorine compounds used to bleach paper produce extremely toxic dioxin, and the production process uses enormous amounts of energy and water, as well as outputs considerably more pollution than ecological paper alternatives. The switch also would save enough energy to power 23,000 households, reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to those produced by 56,000 cars, and eliminate solid wastes equivalent to the garbage produced by 66,000 households. A key factor in the waste issue is a system that rewards publishers for overproducing publications.
Publishers deliberately print excessive numbers of magazines to maximize advertising rates.
This makes economic sense because the marginal cost of each magazine, an average of 91 cents, is low. With regard to using recycled content, the top three concerns cited by publishers are quality, quantity and availability. Anner believes most publishers simply do not know how far recycled content paper has progressed over the last decade, and cites Sierra, Outside and Blue as already are printing on high-quality, recycled paper. America's WoodWise Program said. As Americans increasingly demand more and more corporate responsibility when it comes to the environment, they won't tolerate magazine publishers who blatantly ignore the obvious value of recycling and limiting pollution.