Paper Products and Green Living

Some of the environmental issues that arise from paper production and disposal include the pollution of air and water, high energy use, large landfill requirements and deforestation. To keep the impact on the environment to a minimum we need to change the ways in which we view paper products and begin to reuse and recycle these produces more in an environmentally safe manner. Some of these ways include the use of reusable grocery bags, buying products made from recycled paper, and using cloth towels and napkins instead of paper versions.

In order to have a smaller environmental impact with paper products, we need to begin by reducing our use of them (obviously!) and reusing products whenever possible. Instead of reaching for the roll of paper towels to clean up a spill, why not use a dish towel? Or, instead of using a fresh piece of paper to write your grocery list, start using the back of a receipt or the back of and envelope that a piece of mail comes in. These all seem like minor things, but the impact of doing them all, or the impact that could be effected if we all did one of them, can be pretty profound.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, paper made up the largest share of municipal solid waste in 2006 at 34%. While about half of paper waste is recovered for recycling or compost, the other half ends up in landfills, where it does not readily decompose. Recycling alone is also not a cure-all; the recycling process as well as production from virgin pulp uses water, energy and chemicals. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), paper mills use 40% less energy to produce paper from recycled material than from fresh lumber, but may use more fossil fuels for recycled paper than for that made from virgin fiber. According to the EIA, recycling also uses fewer chemicals than ordinary paper production, and naturally does not pose the same threat to forests. While recycling paper that we can no longer reuse and purchasing recycled paper products can lighten our ecological footprint, reducing and reusing should not be forgotten. Investing in durable reusable bags can help us remember to avoid paper bags when shopping.

Have you thought about the chemicals that are used in paper products that have been bleached and their impact on the environment? Bleached paper items are done with Chlorine, which can cause dioxin, a highly toxic chemical that can cause cancer and birth defects in humans. Paper mills release these chemicals along with other pollutants, such as sulphur oxides and carbon monoxide into our waterways through effluent polluting, contaminating our water and the organisms that live in these waterways, possibly poisoning humans. Paper mills are the largest industrial polluters in North America. By using reusable grocery bags over paper or plastic bags, we will be helping to minimize the impact on the environment that is created through the paper production process.

Finally, we can’t forget about the fact that making fresh paper requires the harvesting of millions of acres of forest (trees) every year. Deforestation causes a number of problems. It destroys animal habitats, putting species at risk for extinction. It reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that can be turned in to oxygen which increases the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This in turn can contribute to global warming. Finally, actually cutting down the tress, shipping them to mills, and so on consumes a large amount of fossil fuels and generates an unnecessary amount of pollution. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, over one third of the wood harvested in the United States is solely for the production of paper products. Again, we can lessen these impacts by recycling paper products, using recycled products, and beginning to use less paper products in general.