Environmental Advantages of Recycling Paper
- Recycling paper saves forests, according to The Environmental Defense Fund. Trees are a vital part of maintaining the quality of the air we breathe. Still, demand for paper products drives the cutting of forests for the wood fiber necessary to make paper. Deforestation is the elimination of large tracts of forest for industrial use such as paper making. Every paper recycled helps reduce deforestation and produces environmental advantages. Paper can be recycled several times before the fibers get too short for further use.
- Recycling paper reduces solid waste, the material that ends up buried in landfills. All Green Things says the average American creates 1.32 tons of trash each year. Paper is a large part of this trash. Breakdown or decomposition of landfilled solid waste is harmful to the environment because it creates air and water pollutants. Greenhouse gas emissions are produced when the paper buried in landfills breaks down. Recycling of paper reduces those emissions.
- Energy saving may be the most important benefit to the environment of recycling, according to the Massachusetts Recycling Coalition. Recycling of paper, aluminum, glass, and steel all aid the environment by saving energy. The energy needed to landfill trash requires fossil fuels. Recycling paper saves the energy used for trash collection and transportation, and less energy is used for extracting wood from forests, refinement, transportation, and processing for paper.
- Preserving natural resources is important for a healthy environment. Natural resources such as trees and water must be preserved to be turned over to the care of future generations. Paper recycling is especially important because of the amount of paper used daily. If every used paper ended up in a landfill, more local land space would be needed. This space could be used instead for growing crops and forests. The Massachusetts Recycling Coalition estimates "Recycling 1,098,776 tons of all types of paper saves 3,625,961 cubic yards of landfill space." Recycling or reusing paper takes pressure off natural resources that need to be conserved for the future.
