[greenyes] The United States produces and uses a third of the world's paper

[RicAnthony@no.address]

Here's an interesting information on Paper use published by Worldwatch 
Institute.  You could download the report from:  
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/goodstuff/paper/

DID YOU KNOW?

The United States produces and uses a third of the world's paper. Forests in 
the
southeastern U.S. now supply a quarter of the global total.

The average U.S. citizen uses more than 300 kilograms of paper annually, and 
the
average Japanese uses 250 kilograms. People in developing countries, in 
contrast,
use only 18 kilograms of paper a year on average—in India, the figure is 4 
kilos,
while in 20 countries in Africa, it's less than 1 kilo. (The United Nations 
estimates
that 30-40 kilos is the minimum needed to meet basic literacy and 
communication
needs.)

Producing one ton of paper requires 2-3 times its weight in trees. Newly cut 
trees
account for 55 percent of the global paper supply, while 38 percent is from 
recycled
wood-based paper, and the remaining 7 percent comes from non-tree sources.

The pulp and paper industry is the world's fifth largest industrial consumer 
of energy
and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.

Making paper from recycled content rather than virgin fiber creates 74 
percent less
air pollution and 35 percent less water pollution. Yet the share of total 
paper fiber
coming from recycled material has grown only modestly from 20 percent in 1921 
to
38 percent today.

The group Environmental Defense estimates that if the entire U.S. catalog 
industry
switched its publications to just 10-percent recycled content paper, the 
savings in
wood alone would be enough to stretch a 1.8-meter-high fence across the United
States seven times.

The Gutenberg Bible, the first and second drafts of the U.S. Declaration of
Independence, and the original works of Mark Twain were all printed on hemp-
based papers.



Ricanthony@no.address
RichardAnthonyAssociates.com
San Diego, California