Writing on Paper

"Most of the world's paper supply, about 71 percent, is harvested from regions with ecologically valuable, biologically diverse habitat."
- Toward a Sustainable Paper Cycle: An Independent Study on the Sustainability of the Pulp and Paper Industry, 1996

"Tree plantations host about 90 percent fewer species than the forests that preceded them."
- Hershkowitz, Bronx Ecology, 2002

"If every household in the U.S. replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees."
- Natural Resources Defense Council

  A section of clear-cut forest in Montana
Bozeman Daily Chronicle    

Lately, I've been thinking about paper. More specifically, about the types of paper - notebooks, magazines, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, kleenex, bags, receipts - that I consume. A few seconds of reflection reveals these as only the beginning of a long list! Increasingly, we as consumers have real choices and buying power over what I perceive to be an over-consumption of paper in this country. By choosing recycled alternatives for these items, we can reduce our footprint on the planet and save cute, valuable species and meaningful change.

Why buy recycled?

 The most important reason to buy recycled products is because it drastically reduces the amount of energy and pollution used to make virgin paper. According to the book Natural Resource Conservation, recycling paper uses 30-55% less energy and produces 95% less air pollution. Each ton of paper recycled reduces our water demand by 230,000 liters (60,000 gallons) and saves 255 kilowatt-hours--enough to run a refrigerator for a year.

Another important reason to buy recycled paper is because most of the paper products we buy (71 percent) come from trees in forests that currently support a diverse array of species. When we remove one part of this complex web, all other parts are in turn affected. For example, the Northern Spotted Owl is a (now endangered) species typically found in old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest and Southern Canada. According to Defenders of Wildlife, there are fewer than 2,400 pairs of these owls left because of habitat loss.

 

 Northern Spotted Owl
The Seattle Times

Tree farms have been one answer to remove pressure from old growth forests--although they are environmentally controversial. Today there are about 74,000 tree farmers in the U.S. Although tree farms (also called monocultures because only one species of tree is raised) grow wood faster, the wood is inferior in quality. Monocultures lack the complex built-in balancing mechanisms found in multispecies forests; as a result, intensive application of fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides is necessary. These chemicals run into nearby streams causing damage to fish and other animals. Overall, tree farms are energy intensive and contribute to environmental degradation.

If consumers can be smarter about the paper they use and buy, we can avoid some of the damage that is now done by over-harvesting and tree farming.

 

 Unlike old growth forests, monocultures like this do not contain a diversity of plants and animals; they do not make good animal habitat; and don't produce the same carbon-sinking benefits.
Yale E360

Which products are best to buy?

Now that you've resolved to buy more recycled products, how do you know which ones are good? Fortunately, the Natural Resources Defense Council has compiled an excellent list of which products are good to buy and, perhaps more importantly, which ones are BAD to buy. The last few months, I have been experimenting with some products from the list. Here are my picks:

• Green Forest napkins (this is the only brand I tried, but they are good.)
• 365 (Whole Foods brand) paper towels are awesome; Seventh Generation (brown color) were ok.
• 365 toilet paper and Seventh Generation were both good; Green Forest was not so good.
• kleenex was a toss up--go for something that says "soft" and hope that it actually is; most likely it will be a lot more course than you are used to.
• AVOID products made by Kleenex, Puffs, Charmin, Cottonelle, Bounty, Scott, and Viva. Although these companies may advertise with cute little puppies and such, they are harvesting trees for their paper from virgin forests and using a highly toxic bleaching process: think about the cute little baby Northern Spotted Owls who don't make it onto television commercials.

 

Black bears depend on the safety and security provided by old growth forests
Nature Trust for British Columbia