Sunday, July 31, 2005
Statistics Sundays 8
Paper - we do not think twice about it, but, it is a precious commodity. Once, there was no paper for anything, people! Stationery, napkins, paper towels, bathroom tissue, "kleenexes"... a few centuries ago, no one anywhere had any of that! Today, we have grown to be blasé about it - even though we are depleting forests and the precious commodity is becoming more precious, we trivialize it all by such statements as "trees still grow" - so, let's not give a damn? Recycling is the most important of the "three Rs", people - get on with the program! And, as for trees still growing... the rainforest is NOT making up for its lost trees; and, yes folks, it is the pulmonary system of our Earth - that means the air WE breathe too...
Quick Facts on Paper
Americans use approximately 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper each year. To produce that paper, over 535 million trees and more than 12 billion gallons of oil are used.
In the United States, more than 90 percent of the printing and writing paper comes from virgin tree fiber (fiber that comes from trees, not recycled paper).
Nearly half the trees cut in North America are used for papermaking.
U.S. pulp mills consume 12,430 square miles of forests around the world each year, roughly an area the size of Maryland.
Nearly 80% of the world's original old growth forests (the world's older forests, characterized by large, old trees, including dead snags and fallen trees that provide wildlife habitat) have already been logged or severely degraded, and in the United States we have lost 95% or our old growth forests.
Gift packaging (along with any sort of packaging) alone accounts for 1/3 of our waste by weight or 1/2 by volume (Worldwatch Institute, 1996).
Quick Facts on Paper
Americans use approximately 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper each year. To produce that paper, over 535 million trees and more than 12 billion gallons of oil are used.
In the United States, more than 90 percent of the printing and writing paper comes from virgin tree fiber (fiber that comes from trees, not recycled paper).
Nearly half the trees cut in North America are used for papermaking.
U.S. pulp mills consume 12,430 square miles of forests around the world each year, roughly an area the size of Maryland.
Nearly 80% of the world's original old growth forests (the world's older forests, characterized by large, old trees, including dead snags and fallen trees that provide wildlife habitat) have already been logged or severely degraded, and in the United States we have lost 95% or our old growth forests.
Gift packaging (along with any sort of packaging) alone accounts for 1/3 of our waste by weight or 1/2 by volume (Worldwatch Institute, 1996).
Comments:
<< Home
well, I guess I am just as guilty as the rest. I even need to get more printer paper! I do use only recycled paper. I used the backs of paper I don't want to keep. Still I do use paper. :(
Poor trees! I do like my books too! Yes Paperback books, not E-books.
Maybe someday I will have E-books more, but I am very attached to my paperback books. If more people actually recycled paper, and there were more accesable paper recycling places it would be better for the trees left!
Have a Great Night ()O()
((HUGS))
Countess
Poor trees! I do like my books too! Yes Paperback books, not E-books.
Maybe someday I will have E-books more, but I am very attached to my paperback books. If more people actually recycled paper, and there were more accesable paper recycling places it would be better for the trees left!
Have a Great Night ()O()
((HUGS))
Countess
Traditionalists will always want to HOLD a book in their hands - e-books are an acquired taste...
There was also some... style to the old habit of having a cloth, personalized with your initials too... handkerchief!
We can't recycle EVERYTHING... but... limit the wasting as much as we can - we should!
No one would want a dirty snotty handkerchief in their pocket all the time, though... Of course, it has to be washed OFTEN... or we have to have more than one!
Other paper wastes can be palliated with as well... surely...?
Some way... somehow...!
There must be... ah... a luminous solution of course! ;)
There was also some... style to the old habit of having a cloth, personalized with your initials too... handkerchief!
We can't recycle EVERYTHING... but... limit the wasting as much as we can - we should!
No one would want a dirty snotty handkerchief in their pocket all the time, though... Of course, it has to be washed OFTEN... or we have to have more than one!
Other paper wastes can be palliated with as well... surely...?
Some way... somehow...!
There must be... ah... a luminous solution of course! ;)
I just thought of something else that I can do to help not use trees for paper so much.
If I am ever at the point where I am ready to get my Novel published I will look for Publishers who ONLY use 100% Recycled Paper to print all their books! That way my books wouldn't be printed from virgin trees!
I might also go the E-book route to sell my Novels. It depends on what is all invovled with that.
I think though that the Novels I have in mind to write wouldn't sell as well as E-books. We'll see about that when the time comes.
Have a Luminous Day (\ô/)
((HUGS))
Countess
Post a Comment
If I am ever at the point where I am ready to get my Novel published I will look for Publishers who ONLY use 100% Recycled Paper to print all their books! That way my books wouldn't be printed from virgin trees!
I might also go the E-book route to sell my Novels. It depends on what is all invovled with that.
I think though that the Novels I have in mind to write wouldn't sell as well as E-books. We'll see about that when the time comes.
Have a Luminous Day (\ô/)
((HUGS))
Countess
<< Home
