Why Paper Has to be Recycled?

Unlike plastics and rubber, paper is easily biodegradable. Then what’s the exact need of paper recycling and what is the scope of the industry?

The first aim of paper recycling is forest preservation. About 90% of paper pulp is made of wood. Recycling of paper certainly reduces the usage of wood. It takes about 17 trees and 1500 liters of oil to produce one tonne of paper. It means that “throwing away of one kg of newspaper every week is equal to one tree a year”.

About 20% of domestic solid waste collected is paper. Like an old saying “They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers”, yes it is, “newspapers are dead trees with information smeared on them”. In a survey it was stated that the count of newspaper readers in India was a whooping 203.6 million! It seems there are 203.6 million murderers of trees in India. Though the statement above may seem to be a joke, it is the fact.

Anyway there’s no good substitute for papers. “We’ll never know the worth of water till the well is dry”. So it’s very much important to conserve the trees also. And both the need for forest conservation and requirement of papers can be satisfied only by recycling.

There was an interesting question in news. The question is, if recycling paper can solve these problems, who is going to be the one that does it? The answer is simple enough; just hold up a mirror in front of your face. That is the person in charge of recycling in your household.

The main benefit is forest preservation. Recycling about 1 tonne of copier paper about saves 2 tonnes of wood. Also it has been estimated that recycling half the world’s paper would avoid the harvesting of 20 million acres of forest land.

The second aspect is reduction of energy consumption. The requirement of electricity will be greatly reduced by the practice of paper recycling.

Third is the landfill use. About 35% of municipal solid waste (before recycling) by weight is paper and paper products. In a report it was highlighted that recycling 1 tonne of newspaper eliminates 3 cubic meters of landfill.

Finally recycling paper reduces water and air pollution by 35% and 75% respectively.
“If civilization has risen from the Stone Age, it can rise again from the Scrap paper Age”. Recycling of papers provides many job opportunities and a lot of people can make a living out of it. The only thing that cannot be recycled is wasted time. So let’s be a part of this paper recycling and save our time and environment because, as Joyce Kilmer said “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree”. And we are not environmentalists, but “EARTH WARRIORS”.

Tagged as: Paper, Recycled