What Is Saved When We Recycle Paper?
Recycling is a process of conserving resources and can be used for oil, consumer electronics, household hazardous waste like cleaners and pesticides, organic materials such as discarded foods and yard trimmings, and other materials like plastic and automotive parts. According to the EPA, out of the 250 million tons of discarded materials in the United States in 2008, 83 million tons were recycled. Of all items, paper accounts for the greatest amount of municipal waste.
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions
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Recycling paper reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases like methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases (like perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and hydrofluorocarbons) are believed by many scientists and organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be contributing to global warming. Recycling one ton of paper reduces greenhouse gas emissions by one metric ton of forest carbon equivalent. This is because paper is originally produced at pulp mills which use chemical and mechanical processing techniques along with bleach and other chemicals which contribute to the release of methane gases. When recycling paper, water is the main ingredient.
Water
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Producing paper uses water in couple of ways. First, manufacturers make pulp using cellulose fibers and water. They also use water when producing white paper because they bleach the pulp to remove color and then wash the bleach out with water and drain it. Recycling one ton of paper would salvage 7,000 gallons of water.
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Trees
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Since the average American expends seven trees a year in products made from trees, this would result in a total of 2,000,000,000 trees wasted per year. Of that, 85,000,000 is simply from paper, which would be approximately 680 lbs. per person. With every ton of recycled paper, 17 trees and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space would be saved. If Americans recycled all newspapers, 250,000,000 trees would be saved a year.
Energy
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Making paper consumes energy in many ways. Generating this energy can result in air and water pollution. Because energy is used in paper mills in paper production, recycling saves energy. In fact, by recycling one ton of paper, the average American could power his home for six months.
Product Resources
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Another benefit of paper recycling is that it can be used to make everyday products like more writing paper, paper towels and money. There are over 5,000 different objects that can be made of recycled paper including less familiar objects like egg cartons, car insulation, dust masks, hospital gowns and coffee filters.
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References
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- Photo Credit Résultat du tri sélectif des papiers et cartons recyclables image by JYF from Fotolia.com
