How Long to Regrow a Tree for Copier Paper?

In general, paper comes from a combination of trees, plants, recycled paper, wood chips and sawmill scraps. Most of the trees used in making paper come from working forests, where trees are planted, maintained and harvested for industry.

Regrowth

Most trees take an average of one year to get to the seedling stage. In working forests or on tree farms companies plant and harvest trees for paper and other wood products in 20- to 35-year cycles.

Volume

The amount of paper a tree can produce depends on the size of the tree. According to green@work magazine, 10 reams (a ream is 500 sheets) of copier paper uses 0.6 trees, and one tree makes 16.67 reams of paper.

Sources

About 28 percent of all wood cut in the U.S. is used for paper making, according to Ecology.com, while recycled materials make up more than 36 percent of the material for new paper.

References

• EPA: Paper Recycling, Frequent Questions
• Paperrecycles.org: Paper & the Environment
• Ecology Global Network: Paper Chase
• Green@work: One Tree = How Much Paper?
• EPA: Calculations and References