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Sustainability
Why
Organic?
Cotton Facts
Hemp Facts
Paper Facts
Paper Terminology
What
you can do
Links
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Trees are the lungs of our planet, and
every day we are losing more of our
forests to the production of tree-based paper products. Numerous
sources exist for paper production that are not as environmentally
destructive, such as recycled and alternative fibers like
agricultural waste. Here are some facts on the impact of tree-based
industrial paper production:
- More than 90% of the printing and
writing paper made in the US is from virgin tree fiber.
- Old growth forests make up 16% of
the virgin tree fiber used each year to make paper products.
- Nearly 80% of the world's original
old growth forests have been logged or severely degraded already
and in the US we have lost 95% of our old growth forests.
- 77% of the pulpwood harvested in
the US is harvested in the South.
- 40% of the world's industrial
logging goes into making paper and this is expected to reach 50%
in the near future.
- Worldwide, the pulp and paper
industry is the 5th largest industrial consumer of energy - in
the US it is the 2nd largest industrial user of energy.
- Paper comprises roughly 40% of the
municipal solid waste burden in many industrial countries.
In contrast:
- Nearly a ton of new recycled paper
can be made from a ton of recycled stock compared to the 2-3.5
tons of trees required to make a ton of virgin paper. This is
one of the reasons recycled paper results in lower solid waste
byproducts and uses less energy, water and chemicals.
- Annual crops such as cotton, flax,
hemp, and kenaf are rapidly renewable resources which can contribute to
more environmentally sound paper blends.
- Cotton, flax, hemp, and kenaf yield
longer fibers and can assist in creating high quality paper when
added to shorter fiber resources such as recycled post-consumer
waste.
Source:
ForestEthics
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