Image by tobo via FlickrThe following list is from thedailygreen.com. Under each point is my response.
electronic: Making a computer typically requires the mining and refining of dozens of minerals and metals, including gold, silver and palladium, as well as the extensive use of plastics and hydrocarbon solvents. The lifespan of a computer is short, and electronics have become the fastest growing waste stream in the world."
- Forests store 50% of the world's terrestrial carbon. (In other words, they are awfully important "carbon sinks" that hold onto pollution that would otherwise lead to global warming.)
- My response: This is an excellent point. Did you know that younger forests sequester more CO2 than older ones do? A well managed working forest, the kind that supplies the wood pulp for paper, is younger and has less CO2/methane producing rot than an older forest. If a forest is not a working one it is in more danger of being clear cut and turned into a paved over development.
- Half the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what's left has been seriously degraded.
- My response: What is left out here is that most of that was for development and conversion to agricultural land. In the USA the number of acres of forest land has been quite stable and has actually grown over the last 10-15 years.
- 42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper.
- My response: Keep in mind that that this fact only applies to industrial wood harvest. This is how important that keeping the paper industry alive is. The best managed forests are the plantations used to make paper. The trees are replanted as opposed to conversion to agricultural or developmental purposes. Trees are a renewal resource. Keep them well managed!
- The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among United States manufacturing industries, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector's carbon emissions.
- My response: I am going to directly quote the Down to Earth website by International Paper here:
electronic: Making a computer typically requires the mining and refining of dozens of minerals and metals, including gold, silver and palladium, as well as the extensive use of plastics and hydrocarbon solvents. The lifespan of a computer is short, and electronics have become the fastest growing waste stream in the world."
- Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste).
- My response: See above and hey at least paper is compostable.
- Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide).
- My response: Wait a second there. Doesn't that methane come from food waste and human waste (baby diapers folks).
- If the United States cut office paper use by just 10% it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road.
- My response: And then you have produce the electricity to drive all of those electronic devices that would take their place. I don't think this analysis was done to completion.
- Compared to using virgin wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50% less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and -- of course -- 100% less wood.
- response: My only comment here is that we need to use the recycled fiber appropriately. Tissue and toweling is much more appropriate than high end coated paper production.
- In 2003, only 48.3% of office paper was recovered for recycling.
- Recovered paper accounts for 37% of the U.S. pulp supply.
- Printing and writing papers use the least amount of recycled content -- just 6%. Tissues use the most, at 45%, and newsprint is not far behind, at 32%.
- My response: That is appropriate. Cleaning up the recycle content is expensive and inappropriate for coated paper production. Use it in the production of newsprint, tissue and toweling.
- Demand for recycled paper will exceed supply by 1.5 million tons of recycled pulp per year within 10 years.
- While the paper industry invests in new recycled newsprint and paper packaging plants in the developing world, almost none of the new printing and writing paper mills use recycled content.
- My response: there is a reason for this. It is expensive to process the fiber for coated papers. The production of coated paper is lower than those other market segments anyway.
- China, India and the rest of Asia are the fastest growing per-capita users of paper, but they still rank far behind Eastern Europe and Latin America (about 100 pounds per person per year),
Australia (about 300 pounds per person per year) and Western Europe
(more than 400 pounds per person per year). - The Forest Stewardship Council's certification of sustainable forestry practices is growing, with 50% of the paper product market share and 226 million acres
accounted for. Advocates say the demand for recycled paper and
sustainably harvested pulp from consumers, advertisers, magazine makers
and other users of paper will yield the fastest reforms of the industry. - My response: Yes and this is happening at a rapid rate.
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