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Fun Facts

Here are some facts about forestry and paper from expert interviews and across the web that industry members might take interest in.

Paper:

1. During World War II when raw materials were scarce, 33% of all paper was recycled. After the war, this number decreased sharply.
2. In 2007, over 50% of paper used in America was recycled.
3. A 15-year-old tree makes approximately 700 paper bags. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour. In one year, one supermarket can go through 60,500,000 paper bags.
4. 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.

Forests:

1. There are 750 million acres of forestland in the U.S. today, about the same as in 1907..
2. 11 states had increases of forestland of over 25 percent over the last century, and nine had increases of over 30 percent.
3. Overall, forestland in the northern U.S. has increased by almost 30 percent.
4. Virginia, South Carolina, Maine, New York and Montana all have more forestland today than a century ago.
5. Over the same period of time, forestland in Vermont, Pennsylvania and North Dakota has almost doubled.
6. Forestland in Massachusetts and New York have has shown an increase of over 70 percent.
7. Historical trends indicate that the standing inventory (volume of growing trees) of hardwood and softwood tree species in U.S. forests increased by 49 percent between 1953 and 2006.
8. For the past 50 years, tree removals have remained below two percent of standing inventory (the figure for 2006 was 1.68 percent).
9. The net growth of trees has been near three percent (in 2006, 2.64 percent).
10. The stability and abundance of forestland, together with the growing conservation ethic of the American public over the past century, has helped many species on the brink of extinction (e.g., wild turkey, elk) make full recoveries.

General Recycling:

1. The combination of wood fiber from sustainably managed forests and high quality recovered fiber make paper one of the most sustainable products in the marketplace.
2. To use the chasing recycling arrows symbol, a manufacturer must qualify any claim by clarifying the label use or indicating the percentage of pre-consumer or post-consumer recovered paper in the product
3. Fifty six percent of all the paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling in 2007 and the paper industry has set a goal of 60% by 2012 . Demand for recovered paper is increasing at a rate of almost ten million tons per year.
4. Paper production cannot be sustained by recovered paper alone.
5. The terms “recycle” or “recyclable” on paper products mean that they can be recovered through certain business, state and local government recycling programs.
6. International Paper is the largest paper recycler in the world, managing over 8 million tons per year. International Paper’s mills consume over 5 million tons of recovered paper per year.
7. In 2007, U.S. paper mills used nearly 36 million tons of recovered paper. Nearly 20 million tons of recovered fiber are exported from the U.S. around the world in 2007 to help supply the worlds fiber demand.
8. Paper performance, air and water quality, energy required for transportation, sorting and drinking and natural resource conservation are all factors we weigh to gauge the costs and benefits of virgin fiber versus recycled content.
9. Both recovered paper and virgin material are essential to the on-going management of a sustainable fiber supply.