No Such Thing as Trash

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Recommended: The history of paper

Paper was invented thousands of years ago but the mechanized method of paper making took a long time to reach the United States. This country did not start manufacturing its own paper until 1690, when William Rittenhouse established the first paper mill near Germantown, Pennsylvania (Papermaking Moves). Now there are over five hundred mills in this country and “each year, more than 2 billion books, 350 million magazines, and 24 billion newspapers” are published in the United States alone (All About Paper). Many people worry that trees will disappear and landfills will grow out of control because paper is used for so many products. This fear is understandable, however, every day more uses are being found for scrap paper. Instead of focusing only on the current problems in paper recycling, Americans must help the paper industry, educators, artists, design entrepreneurs, and even architects find new ways to salvage paper waste.

One of the current problems involved in the public’s consumption of paper products is the use of old and inefficient paper mills. The older mills can use too much energy recycling paper waste and allow large amounts of carbon dioxide to enter the atmosphere. The solution to this inefficiency is to upgrade or build new paper mills which would use less energy with less pollution. Another problem in recycling is that consumers are still not as involved as they should be and fill about twenty seven percent of landfill sites with paper and cardboard each year (Text Version). Un-involvement, however, can be turned around if everyone will sort their paper products and get them to a recycling center.

Once the sorted paper leaves the recycling center it enters the paper mill process and is turned into many useful i...

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..., 2014.

Molo Designs. “Soft Seating”. Molo Design Studio. 2011. Web. April 11, 2014.

“Paper Making Moves to the United States”. Institute of Paper Science and Technology at Georgia Tech. June 13, 2006. Web. April 11, 2014.

“Pritzker Architecture Prize Goes to Shigeru Ban”. The New York Times. March 24, 2014. Web. April 11, 2014.

“Q & A on the Environmental Benefits of Recycled Paper”. Environmental Defense and the Alliance for Environmental Innovation. Web. April 11, 2014.

“Shigeru Ban: Emergency Shelters Made From Paper”. TED Talks. August 13, 2013. Web Video Broadcast. April 11, 2014.

“Text Version of Municipal Solid Waste Charts”. Environmental Protection Agency. February 28, 2014. Web. April 11, 2014.

“Wastes-Resource Conservation-Common Wastes and Material-Paper Recycling”. Environmental Protection Agency. February 28, 2014. Web. April 11, 2014.

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