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Sourcing quality recycled stationary

We buy our electricity from www.good-energy.co.uk, the only uk supplier of electricity from 100% renewable sources. We had noticed the following sentence on all correspondance - "Printed on recycled paper from 100% post consumer waste" - but the paper itself was fairly unremarkable; smooth, greyish, worthy but not noteworthy.

Then, one day, we received a letter about global oil prices pushing up the price of electricity, etc, just the kind of thing you want to be faced with over breakfast, but reading the letter, we were struck by the quality of the paper it was printed on. It had a very pleasing tactile quality, not perfectly smooth like most business letters that come through the post, and was just off-white. A similar message was printed at the bottom of the page - "Printed on totally chlorine free, 100% recycled post consumer waste".

At the time of receiving this letter, we were using a very nice Croxley Heritage paper made from 75% recycled paper for all correspondance, but we were sufficiently intrigued by what we had received to try and find out a bit more about it.

We called Good Energy customer service and asked who supplied their paper, and what it was. This being an unusual request, the assistant had to go away for a moment, then came back to say that their printer supplies the stock, so they couldn't tell me anything about the paper, but were happy to pass on the details of their printer, Apple Litho, Bristol.

From a description of the letter's contents, Apple were able to tell us that it was printed on Take 2 Offset Laser, and that the paper is only sold in large sheets to printers who then guilloteen it to size. They were happy to quote the cost of cutting a number of sheets to A4 and delivering them ( we get through 500 sheets in a few months, so wouldn't be buying very much ), but suggetsed it might be better to talk to the merchant that they buy from, for more cost effective alternatives.

We called McNaughton paper merchants in Bristol and explained the reason for calling. They recommended a paper called Evolve Business which comes pre-cut to A4, but would only be able to sell us a minimum of 5 reams, 2,500 sheets. They suggested that we call our local branch of Kall Kwik, who they supply, and who should be able to sell us just the one ream we needed.

Unfortunately, it turns out that our local Kall Kwik don't have sufficient market for this sort of paper and so, for fear of having lots of unwanted paper sitting in stock, could also only sell us a 5 ream pack. They did suggest, however, that Staples would probably be able to, and sure enough, they do - www.staples.co.uk

This was pleasing, but we were disappointed at not being able to buy the paper that we had received. The Evolve Business sounded ok, but we didn't really want a brilliant white, perfectly smooth paper. So, heading back to McNaugthons website we had a look around and came across a pdf explaining what recycled paper is, and the different types that they offer. Reading about the Take2 papers and their energy-efficient production, we became convinced that we had to find a way to get hold of some.

Then a minor brain wave occurred. Our B&B belongs to the local tourism association, and we are also members of the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, who are very active in all things sustainable. If we could generate sufficient interest from a number of other local businesses, we could join together to buy enough paper to make it cost effective to do so.

McNaughtons seemed intrigued by the idea, and suggested that instead of buying direct from them and incurring delivery charges, it might be better to buy from a local printer that they supply, who would be able to guillotine the larger sheets to size. They sent us a batch of paper samples, so that we could make sure we were ordering the right one.

Launceston Printing Company were happy to quote for supplying and cutting the paper, Take 2 Offset Laser, so we sent out an email to all members of both organisations that we belong to, received a number of interested responses, and placed the order.

All from one little piece of info at the bottom of a letter.