Seeing the Paper for the Trees

Talking Points

Paper Production - “Mass Paper Production Threatens Our Forests” Facts and Figures http://www.forestethics.org/paper/facts.html

Junk Mail - "Just the Junk Mail Facts" Center for a New American Dream http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/facts.html

Books

· 95% if paper on which US Books are printed is made from virgin fiber – about 19 million trees.

· “Harry Potter” Author J.K. Rowlings requested that her novels be published on recycled paper – the Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books complied, sparing an estimated 30,000 trees in an initial pressrun of 935,000 copies.

· Other authors and publishing houses who insist on recycled paper: Alice Walker, Barbara Kingslover and Julia Butterfly Hill, as well as Chelsea Green, Island Press, Seven Stories, Sierra Club Books, South End, and Snow Lion.

Paper Consumption in the US

· The US consumes 200 million tons of wood products annually – increasing annually by 4%.

· The pulp and paper industry consumes 1 billion trees a year – 735 pounds of paper for every American.

· Only 5% of America’s virgin forests remain, while 70% of fiber consumed by the pulp and paper industry continues to be generated from virgin wood.

· Global consumption of wooed products has risen 64% since 1961.

· The Pulp and Paper industry is the third largest industrial polluter in both Canada and the US and in the US, the industry is also the third largest energy consumer.

· Just 10% of paper comes from non wood sources globally. In the US it’s less than 1%

· There are currently no commercial non wood pulp mills in the US.

Alternatives to Trees

· Kenaf dry materials could be produced at half the cost per unit of pulpwood production, and paper can be produced without chlorine bleaching.

· One acre of hemp can produce as much usable fiber as four acres of trees – hemp paper lasts longer, is stronger and both acid and chlorine free.

· Hemp paper can be recycled seven times, compared to wood pulp – which can be recycled only four times.

· Both Hemp and Kenaf blend well with weaker post consumer recycled paper.