Paper Usage
The
United States produces and uses a third of the world's paper. Forests
in the southeastern U.S. now supply a quarter of the global supply
of paper. The average U.S. citizen uses more than 650 pounds of
paper annually. People in developing countries, in contrast, use
only 40 pounds of paper a year on average—in India, the figure
is nine pounds, while in 20 countries in Africa, it's less than
one pound.
Making paper from trees has environmental cost. The pulp and paper
industry is the world's fifth largest industrial consumer of energy
and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.
Producing
one ton of paper requires two to three times its weight in trees.
Newly cut trees account for 55 percent of the global paper supply,
while 38 percent is from recycled wood-based paper, and the remaining
seven percent comes from non-tree sources.
Making paper from recycled content rather than trees creates 74
percent less air pollution and 35 percent less water pollution.
The amount of paper coming from recycled material has grown from
20 percent in 1921 to 38 percent today. We could do a lot better.
If the entire U.S. catalog industry switched its publications to
10-percent recycled content paper, the savings in wood alone would
be enough to build a 10-foot-high fence across the United States
seven times. Here are some ideas:
- Use less paper: use the back side of paper, use washable dishes instead of paper, take a canvas bag to the grocery store, use a cloth instead of paper towels
- Print double-sided
- Recycle all your paper
- Buy only products that have high recycled content
- Ask companies to stop sending you catalogs and junk mail
