Find Out Why You Should Recycle Paper

Not enough people recycle the paper that they use, which is a real shame because there are many benefits to be had from doing so. What are those benefits? Well, these are some of the main ones…

- As paper is made from trees, the less paper we use the less trees have to be cut down. The effect of cutting down trees is devastating on the environment. Whole ecosystems can come to an end as a result of just part of a forest being cut down. Therefore, recycling paper saves many animals and a lot of plant-life. There is also the visual impact that deforestation to consider. Google the term ‘deforestation’ and see for yourself what a stain excessively cutting down trees leaves on our planet.

- A lot of everyday items (newspapers, Cardboard Boxes, envelopes, egg cartons, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.) can be made from recycled paper. These items do the same job whether they are made from ‘new’ paper or recycled paper, so it makes so no sense to not make them from recycled paper. The problem is we are not recycling enough paper to be able to make these items from only recycled paper.

- Money can be saved in two ways by recycling paper. Firstly, from a manufacturing point of view, it costs much less to turn waste paper into new paper products than it does to turn trees into new paper products. Secondly, as consumers, by buying recycled products we can save money as they nearly always cost less than ones made from virgin pulp. In these harsh economic times, avoiding unnecessary leakage in any part of the economy makes sense.

- Recycled paper products conserve resources and generate less pollution during manufacturing. This is because the fibers have already been processed once. It also reduces solid waste because it takes usable paper out of the waste stream. That means less total energy, water, and chemical use, and lower releases of air and water pollutants.

- Producing recycled paper uses much less total energy than producing virgin paper. Depending on the grade of paper, producing recycled paper may use less purchased energy in the form of fossil fuels and electricity. Pretty much all of the energy that we use damages the environment in one way or another, and so we should save what we can where we can.