Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and making it into new paper products. Recycled paper can be made into paper towels, notebook paper, computer paper, copy paper, envelopes, boxes, and even cat litter. The United States uses 85.5 million tons of paper a year and approximately 19 millions tons of that is recycled. If we recycled the rest of the paper that we use, we could save 782 million trees.
Each tree can remove 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air in a year. If we recycle just one ton of paper we would save 17 trees, 6900 gallons of water, 4 barrels of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution, 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space, and 4200 killowatt hours of energy which could heat and cool the average home in the United States for approximately 6 months.
In 2008, the U.S. recycled over 57% of the paper it consumed which equals 340 pounds for each man, woman, and child. Americans buy 62 million newspapers a day and only recycle 18 million of them and the rest wind up in our landfills. Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper a year. According to the EPA, paper is the most prevalent material in our landfills so therefore recycling can help us reduce the amount of waste in our landfills. If Americans recycled every phone book each year, approximately 650,000 tons of paper could be saved.
The recycling of paper products creates a large number of jobs. An average American uses 465 trees to create a lifetime of paper. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) making paper from recycled materials creates 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution. Making a ton of new paper uses 3,688 pounds of wood and 24,000 gallons of water.
Blimey, Jay, these stats put forward a very compelling argument for recycling paper. Thanks for this.
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
Mandy this is why we are becoming more excited about sharing this information. We can make major improvements in the world environment just by changing our habits only a little bit. So it is a no brainer in my eyes….we just need to start doing those simple little things. As one marketer says….It’s Stupid Simple….anyone can do it.
Jay
we should always think about recycling our waste products to help the environment.`~.
recycling is very important these days because we have lots of pollution**`
recycling is very necessary so that we could reduce the waste that we dump on our environment.:*
recycling should always be implemented to avoid to much pollution in the environment *:’
That is a shocking fact – already, 57% of paper is being recycled! Well, at least in 2009. In my area, there is much more latitude about the paper that is recyclable. For instance, clay-coated flyers and magazine paper wasn’t possible in the past.
I am still concerned, though mollified by your post, that recycling doesn’t cost more money and resources than it saves.