Recycled Paper, Why?

[MasterNile]

I understand wanting to help the environment and have no problem with it, but why do some people seem to think recycled paper is so good and green?

The rainforest isn't being cut down to make paper, they have tree farms that replace the trees as they are cut down to make paper. Also AFAIK processing used paper costs the same if not more energy to make it usable again.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? In my mind it just doesn't make sense, if someone can clarify for me how it does it could put a stop to my confusion.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

well one thing recycling paper does it is reduce what ended up in the landfills.
Also it takes less energy to make recycled paper than it does new paper so that is a huge savings.
Reduces the demand on the tree farms that might be pushed to their limits as it is.

 

[MasterNile]

Do you have anything to back up the energy use?

And paper is biodegradable so that doesn't matter much.

 

[imaketouchtheme]

I don't understand why you wouldn't think recycling would use less energy. If you think about it, when you're creating paper from trees, you first have to create paper, but if you're creating paper from paper, you just smush it up and remake it. Logical thinking....logical...

 

[MasterNile]

Recycling paper to make pulp may actually consume more fossil fuels than making new pulp via the kraft process, however, since these mills generate all of their energy from burning waste wood (bark, roots) and byproduct lignin.[14] Pulp mills producing new mechanical pulp use large amounts of energy; a very rough estimate of the electrical energy needed is 10 gigajoules per tonne of pulp (2500 kW·h per short ton),[15] usually from hydroelectric generating plants. Recycling mills purchase most of their energy from local power companies, and since recycling mills tend to be in urban areas, it is likely that the electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.

So while they may use more energy they tend to use less fossil fuels to get that energy than recycling mills. Also you are forgetting the process of deinking.

 

[localoid]

...
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? In my mind it just doesn't make sense, if someone can clarify for me how it does it could put a stop to my confusion.

Confused? You could start by reading the Wikipedia article on paper recycling or simply google "benefits of paper recycling"...

If every household in the U.S replaced just one 4-pack of 500 sheet virgin fiber bathroom
tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save:
1.2 million trees
5.1 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to over 5000 full garbage trucks
537 million gallons of water, a year's supply for over 15,300 families of four (It takes much more water to convert trees into paper then it takes to convert office and home paper into new toilet paper.)
230,000 pounds of pollution avoided, including chlorine toxins

Source: THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF RECYCLING PAPER

 

[kainjow]

Hemp paper would be better

 

[Crawn2003]

Point goes to localoid!

~Crawn

 

[jmann]

Hemp paper would be better

Hemp anything would be better.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Do you have anything to back up the energy use?

And paper is biodegradable so that doesn't matter much.

Minus one fact on the bio degradable part. nothing degrades in a landfill because of the lack of oxygen. It takes 100's of years for it to degrade in a landfill so recycling it keeps it out of landfills so it is still a valid point.

as for the other part. 30 sec of googling lead me to wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_recycling

 

[Demosthenes X]

Do you have anything to back up the energy use?

FAIL. If you're going to claim that "processing used paper costs the same if not more energy to make it usable again", and not provide any evidence, then you have no place to demand other people provide evidence.

And paper is biodegradable so that doesn't matter much.

Paper takes up space in a landfill. That means landfills have to be bigger, which means they take up more space. More space for garbage = less space for whatever should be there instead of garbage.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

...but why do some people seem to think recycled paper is so good and green?

Because it is very difficult to wipe your arse with a Spotted Owl.
http://www.fseee.org/index.html?page=http%3A//www.fseee.org/forestmag/0304dietrich.shtml

 

[Jpoon]

FAIL. If you're going to claim that "processing used paper costs the same if not more energy to make it usable again", and not provide any evidence, then you have no place to demand other people provide evidence.



Paper takes up space in a landfill. That means landfills have to be bigger, which means they take up more space. More space for garbage = less space for whatever should be there instead of garbage.

It's better to use the readily available supply of paper rather than grow more trees and create a form of matter that can either be thrown in a landfill or recycled.

Just recycle the stuff we already made. Sure it creates pollutants, and it's expensive.

So, remedy the method of recycling.

/thread

 

[techfreak85]

but also the energy used to recycle the paper can be clean energy, like solar, wind, or Hydro energy. Vs the Gas/diesel on top of damaged ecosystems.

 

[mbpnewbie]

but also the energy used to recycle the paper can be clean energy, like solar, wind, or Hydro energy. Vs the Gas/diesel on top of damaged ecosystems.

But you can't stop the chlorine entering the atmosphere. Plus with more trees being planted, the traditional paper industry makes sense vs. recycled... plus, it's better quality

 

[Fake Hipster]

Plus theres a ton of bleach and other harmful chemicals that go into paper, and not so much recycled paper.

 

[Tomorrow]

Do you have anything to back up the energy use?

Yes, we call it Common Sense. In order to press paper, you have to render either wood from a tree or old paper into paper pulp - there are additional steps to reducing wood into paper pulp, whereas the old paper really just needs a bath. Think about it.

Plus theres a ton of bleach and other harmful chemicals that go into paper, and not so much recycled paper.

This depends on what the paper is going to be recycled into. For stuff like cardboard, brown bags, yeah, you're right. Things like copy paper, paper plates, etc. are still bleached.

 

[eldy]

let the tree huggers worry about the environment. i use which ever paper is cheapest.