As we sell handmade paper from India, we are regularly asked if our paper contains Lignin.  The darker shades we sell do indeed contain an amount of lignin but not the pastel shades.  When customers are told this they sometimes (bizarrely) refuse it and yet we are not sure why nor are we sure if the customer knows why!  In fact, being completely free of all traces of lignin in most paper is actually more harmful to our environment!

Lignin is the binding substance in any woody material and is dark brown in colour.  This is responsible for the hardness of wood and also its brown colour.  The first step in the pulping process is to de-lignify the wood and separate the fibre from the lignin using chemicals.  But some of residual lignin is always present in the fibre after this first step.  This is bleached (but not removed) in the bleaching stage.  Therefore even though the pulp may look white, lignin is still present.  To that extent, papers made from wood are not lignin free.  In fact, the lesser the lignin in the paper, the less eco friendly they are because you use more chemicals to remove more lignin.

Therefore, lignin free does not mean eco friendly.  It is just another way of saying they are wood free!  In our case, papers made from Jute are wood free but not lignin free.  Cotton based papers are the only ones that are lignin free.  In fact papers from any plant fibre that goes through the digestion process are NOT lignin free.  But as I said earlier, being lignin free does not mean they are more eco friendly in any way.  In fact it's the other way round.  It is just a catchy phrase used by cotton based paper manufacturers to position themselves!  So if you insist on lignin free paper, please ask yourself why.  If eco-friendly is the answer, then you could be barking up the wrong tree!

Cheers

Malc