History

There is a rising threat in the publishing community to the longevity and quality of books—groundwood papers. Historically, lower-quality groundwood paper has been relegated to mass-market paperback books only, not any more. Today, publishers are using groundwood papers in first-printings of many hardcover books—including many bestsellers, both fiction and non-fiction. This is a serious threat to the quality and permanence of books in the United States.

A Closer Look at Groundwood

A groundwood book will yellow in response to light or heat—within a matter of days in many cases—whereas a Permanent Paper book will retain its visual integrity for years because of its higher quality production. A lesson in papermaking helps explain the situation.

Papermaking begins with trees, which have to be turned into pulp. This is accomplished by separating the fibers by one of two processes—chemical or mechanical. Chemical pulping (which makes free-sheet Permanent Paper) uses alkaline-based processes to remove the lignin, which is the "glue" that holds fibers together. Groundwood pulp is made from mechanically separated fibers (which retains the lignin from the tree). The presence of lignin results in a faster degradation of the paper. In short, books made with groundwood paper will break down much more quickly, and visibly, than a book printed on Permanent Paper.

So the question becomes, "Why print anything on groundwood?" The answer comes down to economics—using groundwood lets publishers save money. While the difference in most cases may be only pennies per book, more publishers are choosing this option for first-run titles. The true cost isn’t felt until much later, after the books begin to degrade.

Libraries have fought this costly battle before.

In 1980, it was discovered that books were deteriorating in libraries across America. At that time, a lot of paper was acid-based instead of alkaline, causing them to deteriorate. Millions of dollars have been spent since that time to de-acidify books, preserving their collections. With the rising use of groundwood papers libraries are being threatened all over again, with one big difference—you can de-acidify a book, but there is no process available to "de-lignin" a book. In other words, once a book is printed on groundwood, there is nothing that can be done to stop that book’s decline.

Permanent Paper vs. Groundwood

To learn more about the papermaking process, click here for our interactive mill tour.