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Green Market:
Tom Bearden looks at pressure on retailers to sell recycled consumer products.
(July 2, 2001)

Clearing the Air:
More efficient air conditioners could help reduce demand for electricity
(June 21, 2001)

Saving the Forests: Spencer Michels reports on changes in U.S. forestry policy.
(May 7, 2001)

Environmental Divide:
Gwen Ifill moderates a discussion about the country's past, present, and future environmental policies.
(Jan. 3, 2001)

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American Forest and Paper Association

Recycler's World

Let's Recycle: Recycling news from across the country

Student Environmental Action Coalition

Youth for Environmental Sanity

Recycling for the future
July 11, 2001

What is all around you, comes in many shapes and colors and seems to be in endless supply?

Paper.

But as the number of people increases around the world, so does paper usage. And because producing paper often means cutting down trees, environmentalists are encouraging the use of recycled products instead of so-called "virgin" paper that comes straight from the forest.

Recently, the NewsHour reported on a group called Forest Ethics, which is trying to change the way Staples and other companies sell paper. The idea is that if large companies like Staples offer products that include recycled material, paper manufacturers won't cut as much timber.

Paper origins

Although it's hard to imagine, there was a time before paper. A Chinese court official first created cloth paper back in 105 A.D. and used it to record documents and other business.

Paper was a huge improvement over older methods of communicating such as stone, bones, cave walls or clay tablets.

Only the Chinese knew the secrets of paper creation until Muslims invaded during the 8th century and captured a Chinese paper mill.

It would be more than nine hundred years before paper was made in the U.S. England supplied the colonies with paper until the 1690s, when William Rittenhouse set up the first American paper mill.

The first mills used the Chinese technique of shredding cloth into individual fibers to make paper. As more people began to use paper, they switched to tree fibers, since trees were cheaper and plentiful.

Today, most of the trees used to make paper grow in special forests developed specifically for making paper.

Recycled materials

Paper is a bit like oxygen - it's all around us and almost nobody notices. In reality, the paper business is a multi-billion dollar industry both here in the U.S. and abroad.

The U.S. is the world's largest producer and consumer of all wood products. People here consumed close to 99 million tons of paper in 1997 or about 738 pounds per person according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Paper accounts for over 40 percent of the trash people throw away each year and takes up the most room in landfills.

In fact, Americans throw away enough wood and paper every year to heat five million homes for 200 years.

Scientists thought that computers would decrease paper consumption but the opposite has happened. Personal computers and printers account for 155 billion sheets of paper used per year worldwide.

Although the U.S. consumes more paper, we also recycle more. Each year, the U.S. recycles enough paper to fill a box-car train that would be 7,600 miles long.

Much of the paper we use is made from virgin paper mixed with recycled material. When you toss your used paper into a recycling bin, trucks take it to a station where the paper is shredded and mixed with water to start the paper-making process all over again.

Paper mills use your old paper to make new newspaper, notebook paper, paper grocery bags, corrugated boxes, envelopes, magazines, and cartons.

The business of paper

So why, if recycled paper is so good for the environment, aren't more people using it and buying it? The answer has to do with money. Recycling can be expensive and it takes time to change people's habits.

American businesses are trying to offer more products not made from older forests. Home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowe's are already offering products to consumers made from recycled materials or alternative materials like plastic.

Other businesses, like Bank of America, UPS, and Procter and Gamble, try to limit wood consumption by reducing paper usage through company-wide policies. They have instituted paper-saving techniques that save money and reduce the amount of waste generated by employees.

Ordinary consumers can also get into the act by purchasing more products made from recycled paper. Recycled paper comes in various types - you can have paper that is 100 percent "post-consumer" recycled all the way down to 10 percent.

In 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, there were no trees cut down to make it; all the fibers came from recycled materials. If it is less than 100 percent, then the remaining percent is drawn from virgin trees.

As more companies sell products made from recycled paper, the future of the recycling movement depends on whether people decide it's worth a little more money to buy paper that doesn't cost a tree.

Click here for some recycling tips...

What do you think? Would you pay more money for products that are good for the environment?

-- By Samara Aberman, NewsHour Extra