FACTS ABOUT PAPER AND PAPER WASTE

(Please do not print this fact sheet unless necessary!)

Approx. 324 L. of water is used to produce 1 KG of
paper.
Source: Environment Canada

Recycling 54 KG of newspaper will save one tree.
Source: Government of Canada, Digital Collections

Paper manufacturing is the 3rd largest user of fossil
fuels worldwide.
Source: American Forest and Paper Association, (Garner, J.W.. Energy
Conservation Practices Offer Environmental and Cost Benefits. Pulp &
Paper, October 2002).

Paper manufacturing is the largest industrial user of
water per pound of finished product.
Source: American Forest and Paper Association

10,000 trees are cut down annually in China to
make holiday cards.
Source: Xinhua News Agency

3 cubic yards of landfill space can be saved by one
ton of recycled paper.
Source: 50 Simple things you Can do to Save the Earth, Jodi B., Sudbury

Every ton of recycled paper saves about 17 trees.
Source: Purdue Research Foundation and US Environmental Protection
Agency, 1996

Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than
manufacturing virgin timber paper.
Source: "1996 Statistics, Data Through 1995." American Forest and Paper
Association. November 1996. Pg. 2

Paper had an overall recycling rate of 35.3% in
1994. About 55.3% of corrugated boxes, 45.3% of
newspapers, 19.3% of books, 30% of magazines,
and 42.5% of office papers were recycled in.
Source: Environmental Health and Safety Online

Recovered paper is used to make a variety of
products, including copier paper, paper towels and
napkins, corrugated boxes, and hydraulic mulch.
Source: Environmental Health and Safety Online

It takes 75,000 trees to print a Sunday Edition of
the New York Times.
Source: North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling

Every tree provides oxygen enough for 3 people to
breathe.
Source: North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling

Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than
making paper from virgin wood pulp.
Source: Energy Educators of Ontario, 1993


Today, 90 per cent of paper pulp is made of wood.
Paper manufacture is estimated to account for
nearly 13 per cent of total wood use, and represents
one per cent of the world's total economic output.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development, The
Sustainable Paper Cycle, draft report for the Business Council on
Sustainable Development, IIED, London, 1995; Ayres, E.; "Making Paper
without Trees", WorldWatch, September/October 1993, pp.5-8; Durning,
A. T. and Ayres, E.; "The Story of a Newspaper", WorldWatch,
November/December 1994, pp.30-32; Wright, R., personal
communication.

The US uses 25% of the world's paper products.
Source: American Forest and Paper Association

The US uses approx. 68 million trees each year to
produce 17 billion catalogues and 65 billion pieces
of direct mail.
Source: American Forest and Paper Association

The World Commission on Environment and
Development defines sustainability as
“Development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”.
Source: World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987

Average worldwide annual paper consumption is 48
KG per person with North America accounting for
over 1/3.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Discussion Paper (IIED, London, September 1996)

Average per capita paper use in the USA is 333 KG.
Average per capital paper use worldwide is 48 KG.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1997

Asia has surpassed Western Europe in paper
consumption and will soon surpass the United
States.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Discussion Paper (IIED, London, September 1996)

Although paper is traditionally identified with
reading and writing, communications has now been
replaced by packaging as the single largest category
of paper use at 41% of all paper used.
Source: North American Factbook PPI, 1995. (Figures are for 1993)

It is estimated that paper consumption will rise by
50% by 2010.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1997:78

Office paper is the most heavily recovered
segment of printing and writing paper (which
also includes book and magazine paper, junk
mail, brochures, etc.).
Source: Waste Age, "Profiles in Garbage," November 2001

Packaging makes up a third or more of our
trash.
Source: The Recycler's Handbook, 1990

The average American uses 18 cubic feet of
wood and 749 pounds of paper - equal to a
100-foot tree with an 18-inch trunk - each
year.
Source: American Forest & Paper Association, 2004

Recycling half the world's paper would free 20
million acres of forestland.
Source: The Recycler's Handbook, 1990

Paper products use about 35% of the world's
annual commercial wood harvest.
Source: The Recycler's Handbook, 1990

Recycling one ton of paper saves 682.5 gallons
of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards
of landfill space.
Source: Waste Reduction is a Smart Business Decision, Onondaga
Resource Recovery Agency, 1998

The average American attorney uses one ton of
paper every year.
Source: Waste Reduction is a Smart Business Decision, Onondaga
Resource Recovery Agency, 1998

If offices throughout the US increased the rate
of two-sided photocopying from the 1991
figure of 20% to 60%, they could save the
equivalent of about 15 million trees."
Source: Choose to Reuse by Nikki & David Goldbeck, 1995, Earth 911
2004

When paper rots or is composted it emits methane
gas which is 25 times more toxic than CO2.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED),
founded in 1971, was commissioned by the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development to do the study. “A Changing Future for Paper:
A summary of the study “Towards a Sustainable Paper Cycle”.

Dioxin is one by-product from use of elemental
chlorine gas in paper bleaching.
Source: Printers National Environmental Assistance Centre, Fact Sheet
by Todd MacFadden, and Michael P. Vogel, Ed.D. June, 1996

Dioxins tend to bioaccumulate, which means their
concentrations in organisms increase successively
up the food chain.
Source: Printers National Environmental Assistance Centre, Fact Sheet
by Todd MacFadden, and Michael P. Vogel, Ed.D. June, 1996

Dioxin is a proven carcinogen (cancer causing
chemical). However a 1991 study of dioxin found
that its immunological, developmental, and
neurological effects at very low levels may be more
threatening to human health than its
carcinogenicity. There is still much controversy over
the accuracy or credibility of these data, and
whether low levels of dioxins really pose a threat.
Source: Printers National Environmental Assistance Centre, Fact Sheet
by Todd MacFadden, and Michael P. Vogel, Ed.D. June, 1996

The term "dioxin-free paper" is misleading. Paper
does not contain dioxins, but they are produced as
a by-product of the papermaking process and
usually become part of the effluent wastewater of
paper mills.
Source: Printers National Environmental Assistance Centre, Fact Sheet
by Todd MacFadden, and Michael P. Vogel, Ed.D. June, 1996