The Price of Integrity

Ah, recycled paper. It is creeping up into the mainstream. You can find reams of it, boxes of it at most of your local stores.

But ... it is still so flipping expensive. I was at Office Max the other day, getting what else but, some office supplies. I got some envelopes. 30% post consumer was the best that they had and they were 4 something for 50. Not even comparable to the non post consumer kind. What can ya do. So I went for my paper. The 30% post consumer was $5.49 a ream and the 100% recycled $8.99! Yikes!

I even stood there for a minute thinking... Trying to justify... It IS 30%. I mean that's something. Nope, my integrity won, thank goodness, and I signed a heavy sigh and bought the 100%.

The more I thought about this the more I wondered. Is someone making a HUGE profit off of the environmentally conscious? Is it THAT much more labor intensive to make paper out recycled paper as opposed to regular stuff? Or do they see tree huggers and think large profit margin?

For goodness sakes. They don't even need to crop down a tree. OR replant a tree, OR spend the the big bucks advertising that for every tree they are chopping down they are replanting one.

I am glad that recycled products are out there. I just wish people could look at the selection of products and choose recycled more because of that it is and what it means and not avoid it because of the inflated price tag.