Weight conscious Americans could each lose nearly 360 pounds a year, according to the American Forest & Paper Association, just by reducing or eliminating the paper they use in daily life. Of course that’s 360 pounds of paper and cardboard that is destined for recycling bins or one of more than 1700 landfills. Think of it as pounds of paper waste equivalent to one 100-foot Douglas fir tree.
What Produces This Poundage?
When broken down into paper use during the year, for the United States we see that it quickly adds up. Think of the number of coffee filters, facial tissues, storage and product boxes, rolls of wrapping paper, books, magazines, junk mail, newspapers, copy paper, paper towels, even photographs that filter through your hands each year. Here are a few figures of what the United States produces each year using paper:
- 2 billion books
- 350 million magazines
- 24 billion newspapers
- 4 million tons of copy paper (an average office worker uses 10,000 pieces of copy paper annually)
- Not to mention paper towels, facial tissues, junk mail, telephone directories, etc.
- Not to mention corrugated boxes and packaging materials.
Think of the items you use in your home and then multiply them by 307,600,000, the estimated current population of the United States. Whew! Not every person and household contributes to today’s recycling, but they all contribute to its accumulated waste.
America is Getting Greener
Already we have racked up admiral statistics. Paper recycling accounts for more than a third of all recyclables, with 88 per cent of newspapers and 72 per cent of corrugated cardboard repurposed. That’s nearly 44 tons of paper and paperboard recovered in 2006. All but 35 per cent of these reclaimed paper products remain in the United States to be turned into fiber and made into new products.
Now instead of 100 percent new fiber, the recycled products consist of equal parts of recycled paper, trees and plants, and wood chips and sawmill scraps. This new recipe can be used to make a long list of products including:
- masking tape
- bandages
- paper money
- dust masks
- paper gowns
- coffee filters
- lampshades
- car insulation
- animal bedding
- planting pots for seedlings
- egg cartons
Recycling, Something Old is New Again
Way back in the 1600s, paper mills in America used the Chinese method of paper making. They shredded old clothes and rags reducing them to fiber and using this pulp to make new paper products. As demand for the products increased, mills turned to felling trees. Now the paper industry has set a goal of 60 per cent recycled paper by the year 2012. But, they need consumer involvement.
The 44 million tons recycled now compared to the 85 million tons of paper and paperboard used in the United States each year, seems like a meager recovery. We can do more. Just add three new recycling efforts to your daily chores and make a difference. For example:
- recycle telephone directories
- donate books and magazines to libraries, homeless shelters, churches, schools. This prolongs their usefulness and keeps them out of the waste stream
- borrow and read books, magazines and newspapers at your local library
- tote groceries in reusable fabric bags
- use rags or cloth dishtowels
- move your office into a paperless system
- buy recycled products
- recycle packaging materials and encourage companies to find better ways to package products
Make a difference. Go on a weight reduction program, cut down on the waste produced in your household and then act responsibly in recycling the rest.
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