A new report launched at the WAN-Ifra India conference in Delhi this week, tells publishers of the money publishers they could save by reducing their newsprint waste.

Author Kasturi Balaji – with WAN-Ifra’s Manfred Werfel – is chairman of the group’s South Asia committee, and a director of Kasturi & Sons, publishers of The Hindu.

The report highlights issues that can affect the efficiency with which newsprint is used, thereby increasing the awareness of areas where savings can accrue. Increasing newsprint costs have made the question of how to control waste more important.

Newsprint typically accounts for 40-60 per cent of the total production costs, so reducing paper waste can make a uniquely valuable contribution to improving the efficiency of newspaper printing.

Authors say it is impossible to limit this topic to one or a small number of steps in the value chain, with potential waste occurring at nearly all stages of production and delivery, including some over which the plant has no control. The report follows the Newsprint and newsink guide, published 20 years ago.

The WAN-Ifra South Asian committee has focused its attention repeatedly on this topic. Kasturi Balaji’s report deals with the technical and organisational conditions of modern newspaper production, as well as the special conditions in the markets of southern Asia and India, but the report is nonetheless valuable to those in all parts.