Less pulp bleaching is one way to start, says Dr. Carl Houtman, an FPL paper chemist: "It would conserve energy, wood pulp, water and chemicals." The paper would likely" be stronger and more durable, he said.

Less bleaching, though, reduces brightness which the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines as the percentage of blue light 457 nanometers reflected from a paper’s surface. Standard office papers range from 82 to 95%; "high quality" papers can hit over 90% but using techniques such as fluorescing agents, numbers above 100% are claimed.

The FPL says the pulp needs to be bleached at least five points higher than the final paper brightness to compensate for brightness reversion; paper with an 84 index like that used by the government requires bleaching to 89. The report says that bleaching to only 80 could reduce the cost of paper by $34 a ton, saving the federal government $17 million a year while a typical 1000-ton/day pulp mill could save $11 million a year.

Shortly after the USDA announcement, International Paper said it was changing from the GE brightness standard to the CIE whiteness scale to describe its uncoated freesheet papers. IP says that brightness measures a narrow band of color while whiteness measures the entire color spectrum. The CIE designation is now the primary international measure. For example, IP’s Accent® Opaque has CIE 152 whiteness and GE 96 brightness. IP will use its recently announced proprietary VIP Technologies™ to introduce whiteness to its products.

Strangely, IP’s paper distribution unit, xpedex, continues to promote its Vector business papers as having newly increased brightness, from 84 to 92.

There is no word yet on what tissue makers plan to do.