Re. Trees and papaer

Subject: Re. Trees and papaer
From: Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 08:22:29 LCL

David Castro stated that <<Trees aren't cut down for paper. Saving
paper doesn't keep one single tree from being cut down. Paper is made
from the byproducts of the lumber industry. Even the highest grade
paper is made from pulp, which is made from sawdust (and other stuff).
Recycling paper is still good, of course, as it saves the landfill and
takes less energy, though I've been told that recycling still creates
more pollution than regular papermaking (correct me if I'm wrong on
that one, though).>>

Always eager to correct misimpressions! Since we writers are major
(ab)users of paper, we should understand a bit about where it comes
from and the environmental implications. In order,
1. Paper is made directly from trees, no matter how you slice it. Yes,
some pulp (the raw material for papermaking) comes from byproducts of
the lumber industry, but in most of North America, paper is the main
reason for cutting trees. Lumber is more valuable per ton, but more
tons of paper are produced.

2. Recycling is great, but there are a few gotchas... the paper to be
recycled must first be de-inked (or have toner removed), and the
resulting "effluent" is toxic and hard to get rid of safely. Paper is
made of tiny wee fibers of cellulose, and these get fatigued from
continued remanufacturing. Thus, you can only recycle paper so many
times before it loses strength and becomes unsuitable for any purpose.
The highest grades of paper are made from virgin cellulose, and its
difficult to produce a quality paper with any high content of recycled
material.

2B. On a related issue, not all recycled paper is really recycled:
torn sheets, trimmings, and other substandard paper is chopped back up
into cellulose and added to the mix that becomes paper again. This
_is_ recycling, but not in the way you meant. "True" recycled paper is
called "post-consumer waste" and similar names, and represents paper
that has been used by someone and returned for de-inking and
recycling.

3. Saving landfill space is a noble aim, but inert materials such as
paper aren't the main problem: some "garbage archeologists" have
demonstrated that paper can remain essentially intact for more than 50
years in some landfills, so if you need to, you can "mine it" and
recycle it. (There are various proposals to do so.) Landfills are
serious problems for two reasons: (i) they encroach on useful land
(often agricultural) and (ii) the leached materials from landfills
contain many toxic materials with relationship to paper (e.g., lead
from batteries, pesticides, bacteria, etc.). Paper is a visible part
of the problem, but doesn't rank in the top 10 for seriousness.

On another issue, it's worth noting that young, growing trees use up
more carbon dioxide than mature (and particularly overmature) trees.
Older trees can actually generate more CO2 than they take up, although
this isn't a big problem. Cutting trees helps reduce the greenhouse
effect, all else being equal, particularly since we immediately lock
that carbon out of the atmosphere in the form of 32-foot-long shelves
of UNIX manuals etc. (There was an amusing article about this that
demonstrated scientists have a moral responsibility to publish so as
to combat the greenhouse effect! Couldn't find it in my files, but
I'll keep looking.)

There are plenty of problems with _bad_ harvesting, but proper
forestry _is_ environmentally responsible. For other details, see Aldo
Leopold's _Sand County Almanac_, recently reissued by the Quality
Paperback Book Club.

Credentials: I'm a forest biologist, currently working with an
organisation whose goals include minimizing damage from harvesting
operations and ensuring effective reforestation. These points are my
own opinion based on post-graduate research, and don't represent my
employer's official policy.

--Geoff Hart #8^{)}


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