We all know that we should be recycling the paper that we use, but very few of us actually do it. Why is that? It is not difficult to do, so the assumption must be that we are not fully aware of the benefits that it provides. With that in mind, what follows is a look at the main benefits to be had from recycling paper...
- Forests, and the wildlife that live within them, are destroyed as a result of our excessive use of paper. Put simply, the less paper we recycle, the less trees we need to cut down. As well as the effect on wildlife and plant-life, excessive deforestation also creates visual scars on our beautiful planet. Once a forest has been cut down, there is little to no chance of that land ever being home to an ecosystem again.
- There are many useful everyday items that can be made from recycled paper. These are some examples - newspapers, phonebooks, Cardboard Boxes, envelopes, egg cartons, paper towels, toilet paper and notebooks. If items such as these are not made from recycled paper then more trees have to be cut down to produce them, which really is a waste, as these items are equally good made when they are made from recycled paper.
- Recycled paper has cost benefits as it is made from materials that would otherwise constitute the solid waste that is polluting our environment. By infusing this material into the paper manufacturing process, and getting rid of the costs associated with 'virgin' pulp and whitening agents, companies can achieve cost savings by both producing and consuming recycled materials
- 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.
- It takes less energy to manufacture recycled paper and, as most of the energy that we use comes from fossil fuels, this can have a major effect on the environment. Any opportunity to use less coal and oil should be readily taken up. Maybe in the future, when we use more environmentally friendly forms of energy this will not really matter, but for the foreseeable future we have to cut back on the amount of energy that we waste as it damages the environment to create it.