ISO 14001 / Paper Recycling in ISO 14001 - Is it a requirement?

You will not find an explicit requirement in ISO 14001:2015 to recycle paper. Your organization generates paper as a residue, an environmental aspect. Then, your organization should determine the environmental impact resulting from present destination of that paper as a residue. According to your organization’s assessment of the relevance of that environmental impact, a decision has to be made about the need to improve, or not, that environmental impact.

An auditor can always argue that not recycling paper will be against the pollution prevention commitment in the environmental policy (please see definition 3.2.7 in ISO 14001:2015 and this article - How ISO 14001 can improve recycling performance - https://advisera.com/14001academy/blog/2019/03/27/how-iso-14001-can-improve-recycling-performance/ ).

The following material will provide you more information about environmental aspects and impacts:

- Environmental aspect identification and classification - https://advisera.com/14001academy/blog/2019/08/27/key-iso-14001-benefits-to-customers/nowledgebase/environmental-aspect-identification-and-classification/
- Free webinar - Free webinar - ISO 14001: Identification and evaluation of environmental aspects - https://advisera.com/14001academy/webinar/iso-14001-identification-and-evaluation-of-environmental-aspects-free-webinar-on-demand/
- Enroll for free in this course – ISO 14001:2015 Foundations Course - https://advisera.com/training/iso-14001-internal-auditor-course/
- Book – The ISO 14001:2015 Companion - https://advisera.com/books/the-iso-14001-2015-companion/