Cotton Paper & the Environment
Cotton Not Wood
The understated quality and luxury of Crane & Co. paper is derived from the simple purity of cotton. Our papers are made from recovered cotton that mostly comes from textile industry waste by-products. We do not cut down trees to make Crane 100 percent cotton papers. Our papers are tree free!
Cotton fibers are naturally whiter, brighter and more durable and permanent than wood fibers. The beauty of cotton is that it contains very little lignin (the compound that makes tree trunks sturdy) and is alpha-cellulose. This means it requires very little bleaching.
Why Cotton? Seven Reasons.
1. It’s tree free – Not a single tree falls to make Crane’s 100% cotton paper.
2. It’s renewable – Cotton is a renewable resource replacing itself in a single
growing season.
3. It’s recovered – 100% cotton paper is made from recovered cotton materials
including remnants from the garment industry that might otherwise end up in a landfill.
4. It’s recyclable – 100% cotton paper is readily converted into more sheets of
cotton paper. It can also be recycled along with other office paper waste.
5. It’s energy efficient – Cotton requires far less water and chemical processing than
do papers made from wood and our energy usage per ton of paper is much less than typical
wood pulp and paper mills. Using less energy is one of the best ways to preserve our
environment.
6. It’s natural – 100% cotton paper is just that – pure enough to sleep on, dream on.
No other paper matches the soft feel and elegant texture. And we don’t need to use harmful elemental
chlorine to make our paper bright and white because Mother Nature has already done
the work for us.
7. FSC Certification is Moot - We recognize FSC Certification as a viable indicator of
environmental performance. But since we do not use wood pulp in our 100% cotton grades
this benchmark does not apply to Crane & Co.