Apologies to the Dunder Mifflin Co., but paper is starting to irk me. 
I’m trying to be more conscious of my use of it, and to that end recently eschewed my subscription to the LA Times in favor of reading the paper online (not as fun, but not as inky, either) and I traded my inefficient old inkjet in for a monochrome laser printer that can print on both sides of the page. I even started buying paper towels and toilet paper made from recycled paper (which are like 25% more expensive, and I still don’t understand why). But I realized that the little lazy environmentally-conscious voice inside me didn’t really know the facts — is paper really that bad? — so I decided to do a little research. Here’s what I found out.
35% of material in landfills is paper, more than any other type of post-consumer waste, and it’s also the easiest trash to recycle. And the amount of paper we use in the U.S. is only getting higher; in 2006 we threw away 85 million tons, a threefold increase from 1960. Most people are good about recycling newspapers — only about 12% of them end up in landfills — but things like office paper (44% trashed), magazines (59%) and phone books (81%) don’t get recycled as often, so represent much of the paper in landfills. About half of all paper produced for consumption in the U.S. is kept out of landfills — but we’ve still got a ways to go on that front.
Reducing the amount of paper that goes to landfills also has another environmental benefit: that means less paper is burned in trash combustors, reducing air emissions, and there’s less material in landfills breaking down organically, which releases methane into the atmosphere, a powerful greenhouse gas. (This methane can sometimes be trapped and used as an energy source — but only sometimes.)
But what about “saving trees,” the mantra you hear paper-recyclers constantly repeating? Turns out that about 35% of the trees felled each year go to paper production, or about 4 billion trees. Fortunately, much of this comes from tree farms that re-plant trees after they’re felled, though nothing can replace the old-growth forests which are still going under the axe to make toilet paper and phone books.
Paper alternatives
Just as we’re finding alternatives to traditional fuels, we’re also finding alternatives to traditional paper. Some paper makers have turned to something called “agri-pulp” as an alternative, which is wheat, oat, barley and other crop stalks left over after harvesting. Combined with recycled paper and other fillers, some paper makers are finding that agri-pulp paper makes fine stationery. Hemp has also proven a good replacement for wood pulp, though it’s still bafflingly illegal to grow hemp in the U.S. There are other paper alternatives out there, too, but one of the major hurdles to embracing these new technologies is the cost of transforming traditional paper mills, most of which are only set up to process trees. At a cost of tens of millions of dollars per mill, they’ll need some serious economic (or regulatory) incentive to make the switch.
Here are some more fun paper facts, via ecology.com:
• The first paper merchant in America was Benjamin Franklin, who helped to start 18 paper mills in Virginia and surrounding areas.
• Wood pulp is found in rayon material, laundry detergent, camera film, tires, and transmission belts.
• The trees used to make paper in the United States come mostly from softwood forests-mostly pine-in the South and West.
• In 1883 Philadelphia resident Charles Stillwell invented a machine to make brown paper bags so folks would have something to carry their groceries home in. Today more than 20 million paper bags are used annually in supermarkets throughout the country.
• There are 747 million acres of forest land in the United States.
• In 1998, over 1.6 billion tree seedlings were planted in the United States.
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I’m glad you used Dwight for your Dunder Mifflin reference…at least he is helping to put back some of the paper waste he his making…if you remember from the Launch Party episode, he grows hemp!
Seriously though, I use a lot of paper in my classroom and I struggle to get the kids to walk the extra few steps across the room to recycle their old papers instead of throwing them away.
posted by Fruppi on 6-2-2008 at 11:21 am
Personally, I’m all for not reading magazines. But I’m also a bibliophile, so I don’t think we should get rid of paper entirely. Also, that recycled paper better be acid free, or you won’t see me using it for my precious Moleskines.
posted by Mattheous on 6-2-2008 at 1:11 pm
Mattheous knows the score. Recycled paper and new types of paper sound awesome…as long as they’re preservationally sound!
posted by Shasta McNasty on 6-2-2008 at 2:02 pm
@ Fruppi –
Switch the locations of the recycle bin and the trash can. Make then walk further to throw paper away.
Make the laziness work for you!
posted by Konstantine on 6-2-2008 at 2:04 pm
The reason that recycled paper is more expensive: There is a lot of cleanup that must be done to recycled paper. After the paper is smashed up into a slurry, all of the ‘imperfections’ must be removed. That is the coloring of the paper, the ink, the graphite, etc. Two of the most difficult chemicals to remove are laser printer toner (which is essentially a plastic) and post-it note glue. It really contributes to the cost of the process. I have read that they are working on some designer bacteria to make the process cheaper.
I understand that paper is not endlessly recyclable. To make paper, there needs to be long cellulose fibers. Each time a sheet of paper is recycled, those fibers get shorter. After a few trips through the mill, the fibers get too short to be usable.
Last point: Hemp has an interesting history in the US. At one point the government actively encouraged farmers to grow it. (“Ditch Weed” still grows wild in the Midwest.) Dupont and Hearst teamed up to sully the crop. The story would make for a good Mental Floss article.
posted by n2y2 on 6-2-2008 at 2:23 pm
I’m sure this is showing my naiveté, but what happens to recylcable material that ends up in a landfill? I understand that the health concerns would probably be drastic, but what is the cost-benefit ratio of going through garbage for items that can be recycled?
posted by cb on 6-2-2008 at 2:31 pm
Re: Paper alternatives
Punk trees in Fla are eradicated because there are exotics and ruining the natural environment.
A VERY fine quality paper can be made from it. It might take an artist or craftsperson to make paper from punk, but the result is a paper finer than the best Japanese. Try it–
Could it be made comercially? In what quantities?
posted by Lulu on 6-2-2008 at 2:59 pm
Folks:
I’ve heard scientist friends tell me that burying paper or putting it into a landfill where it turns to mulch is called carbon sequestration. Cutting down trees to clear space for new trees, and burying (not burning) the harvested trees (or making furniture or floors) is the best way to reverse global warming.
I’ve heard others claim that the energy used to recycle exhausts more carbon than is used to make virgin paper.
I’ve heard others say that recycling paper is important, and we should bury the trees because there is energy concentrated in the finished paper product.
I’ve heard a lot of people *saying* things, with contradictory conclusions, but they are for the most part opinions without any science.
I don’t know what to tell you, other than it might not be all bad to put paper into landfills.
posted by Steven Schmid on 6-2-2008 at 3:53 pm
Remember, addressing the dire problem of a lack of space in our landfills more appropriately addresses the recycling issue. Paper is made from a re-newable resource: trees!
If you really want to make an environmental impact, make sure the paper you use is made from a mill located in the United States where the industry is strictly monitored by the EPA. Pulping processes are required (by law)to be free of elemental chlorine, resulting in emmisions that contain no detectable dioxins, unlike the off-shore grades that are made without a governing body like the EPA. Off-shore grades may be cheap, but are they worth the price we will all eventually pay?
All paper mills in the USA are today on the “brighter shade of green” complying to manufacturing standards in paper making unparalleled by any other country in the world.
By the way…all USA manufactured paper pulp is archival resulting in acid free paper.
posted by Ellen Pizza on 6-3-2008 at 12:02 pm
Vote for the legalization of hemp. Among many other uses (including as a replacement for cotton, cooking oil, and more) hemp can be used to manufacture paper. The yield of paper/mi^2 is higher than that of trees, the turnaround time is much faster and, as hemp is a “weed”, it requires less resources to grow (like fertilizer and water) than trees. So not only can your “old growth” forests be spared but the environmental impact of growing a plant for paper is diminished.
posted by Joel on 11-10-2010 at 8:40 am
lol… I’m in South Georgia, and making paper is what we do…. Pine trees are a big industry here. And the corporation that I work for just told us within the last six months ‘there is no shortage of paper and toner in South Georgia’, when we complained about redundant printing in our office. On the brighter side, we have begun recycling white paper again…
posted by old hippy chick on 11-10-2010 at 9:02 am
@Steve, wouldn’t carbon sequestration work with any carbon-based life form, and not just trees?
posted by bandy on 11-10-2010 at 11:28 am
I am a teacher, so going paper free isn’t feasible for me–at least not yet. But I do recycle every scrap I can get my hands on–the school only buys us five reams of paper for an entire school year, so I am buying the rest out of pocket. So you can bet I’m recycling like nobody’s business. :D
posted by Heather on 11-10-2010 at 1:10 pm
I’m all about recycling and saving the Earth and everything, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it is so much easier to use paper as opposed to paperless alternatives such as the internet.
I speak from the current experience of going through the grad school application process which online is extremely confusing, difficult to navigate, annoying for professors who are writing my letters of recommendation and require the memorization of usernames and passwords that are often quite complex. Having applied to college 4 years ago on paper, I am finding that it was a much simpler process that provided the schools with the same valuable information about me as a student without inconveniencing many who are involved in the process. It seems to me that there could be a recycling program for college applications or some other alternative to what’s being done now. Just my opinion!
Also, on a related note many people my age are applying for jobs, internships and graduate/professional schools. A post relating would totally make my day! (ie: resume writing, interview tips, rankings of schools, interesting stories, big mistakes that people have made, etc)
:)
posted by Lauren on 11-10-2010 at 5:17 pm