Interesting Paper Recycling Facts

Most of these facts are based on American populations but with a little imagination and some math if you’re so inclined they can tell us about our Canadian culture as well.

Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.

During World War II when raw materials were scarce, 33% of all paper was recycled. After the war, this number decreased sharply.

The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!

The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.

The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.

Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!

The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.