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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Defining the major sources of solid waste for KC begins by reviewing the solid waste produced in their manufacturing processes worldwide, since this contributes to the highest output of solid waste and environmental waste. The waste to landfill ratio for KC, still ranks high among EPA and other environmental standards, this is due to process manufacturing of paper products. This method has been in existence in the paper industry since the late 1870‘s, which required large amounts of electricity and water during process manufacturing. Through the year’s newer machines, new efficiency standards, and conservation programs began to be, implemented for KC and other manufacturers worldwide, due to growing environmental concerns, and global warming. However the high demand for forest products, pulp, recycled fibers, energy, and water could not be greater, therefore the process used to produce these products had to change because of the high volume of waste originally destine to landfills, which is now being diverted from the same landfills. Thanks to the efforts of consumers, EPA and hundreds of GRI and ISO standards now within the manufacturing industry.
More than 30,000 tonnes of paper continues to be reaching to lowland in port per annum. Most of this is often large cardboard and lightweight baggage of workplace paper that on the average...
Also, according to the BRC, “...paper (is) more likely to take up landfill space and cause greenhouse gases and pollution rather than plastic bags,” (Doc A). Although plastic materials can become a hazard to the
Paper recycling is the process of mixing used paper with water and chemicals to break it down. This mixture is then chopped up and heated to breaks it down further into strands of cellulose called pulp or slurry. It then strained through screens which remove any glue or plastic that may still be in the mixture. Finally it is cleaned, de-inked, bleached, mixed with water and then it can be made into new recycled paper.
The environmental problems resulting from increasing world consumption of paper has stimulated research into t...
When we recycle the things, the used materials are converted into new products which reduces the need to consume natural resources. There would be less consumption of the natural resources if the things are getting recycled after every use. Recycling reduces the process of extracting the materials to make new products. The materials itself from the process of recycling is the raw material which would be enough to create a product. For instance, if we want to make paper from old paper we do not need to cut trees because we already have the material to create paper. Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees. Recycled paper supplies more than 37% of the raw materials used to make new paper products in the U.S. Without recycling, this material would come from trees. Every ton of newsprint or mixed paper recycled is the equivalent of 12 trees. Every ton of office paper recycled is the equivalent of 24 trees. When one ton of steel is recycled, 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone are conserved (Recycling Revolution). If we promote recycling process it prevents habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and soil erosion associated with logging and mining. Every day 40 mine worker are killed and many more are injured so recycling would reduce the need for mining. As I have already stated every ton of paper worth 17 trees. The EPA estimates that more than 100,000 marine
...incing letter to your boss (if you're not the boss) might convince him or her that the amount of money saved in paper will eventually pay for the printer. When you go to the grocery store, bring your own bags instead of using paper or plastic. Consumers often wonder which of the two is better; the answer is: neither. When shopping for smaller items, tell the clerk not to give you a bag (frequently their default action) if you can simply carry the item in your hand. Buy durable, quality items that will last and lend themselves to repair when broken. When things do break, remember that fixing is almost always cheaper than replacing, and you'll have the satisfaction of minimizing your garbage output. When you no longer need something, give it away instead of throwing it away. Organizations like The Salvation Army will gladly accept almost any used household item. Remember that Benjamin Franklin's maxim, "A penny saved is a penny earned," goes for the environment, too. Every time we reuse something, we've saved another like it from having to be made. Every time we recycle something, we've saved energy, pollution, and the materials from being mined from our natural resources.
When most people hear the word recycling they think of plastic water bottles, milk jugs, or even old paper that they can reuse, but this is not necessarily the case anymore. Scientists and researchers have discovered a new form of recycling that is going to help better the environment and it can even help make people money! Smokers around the world do not think about recycling their used cigarette butts, but this new form of recycling has changed some of their minds on this subject. Recycling has been a major environmental issue, but most people have forgotten about it or they just do not care for it anymore. Paper recycling dates back to as far as 400 B.C. Some people even say that the early Romans recycled their bronze coins so that they
It takes more energy and water to recycle old paper than to cut down and process pine trees and then plant pine seedlings. It is now cheaper to make a new plastic container than to recycle an old one. Some may think otherwise and say recycling is the best way to preserve natural resources and to reduce the cost of processing garbage. I still believe that recycling is not good. This is the second reason recycling is bad.
Do you hate seeing litter on the streets, or seeing and smelling heaps of garbage sitting, and rotting away? Humans recycling more will help to reduce this. We throw many things that can be recycled. Recycling glass, plastics, paper, and metals will reduce solid waste dumped into the ecosystem daily. “96 percent of U.S. plastic, and 50 percent of its paper, goes into landfills. Mexico, not exactly a bastion of environmental awareness, recycles more glass than the U.S.” (Alice Horrigan 1). That’s 96 percent of the millions of tons of plastic, which will outlive most of us in a landfill that we could recycle and keep it out of our landfill. Paper is made from trees, if we recycle it, we can decrease our rate of ugly deforestation and the destruction of animal habitats. When paper gets to the landfill, it is guaranteed to get wet. The wetness and decomposition of paper atracts mold spores, which produce an odor and are potentially bad for your health. Also k...
Environmental health has been a very important issue to talk about internationally these days. We, human beings are leading the earth toward its edge unconsciously. We are using natural resource more than we give to the Mother Nature. Day by Day, people are aware of what damage they do the environment, but they do not care of fixing this damage. In a very simple step, the road of a better healthy environment will begin; recycling is the best idea that illustrate the previous point. To Andrew Roper, recycling is the conversion of waste products into new materials, such as waste paper that can be converts into new paper goods (n.d). There are many types of recycling, for example, there are glass, paper, metal, plastics, textiles and electronics recycling (Evans , 2011). This research will focus on recycling papers in the United Arab Emirates, the benefits or recycling and its effect on the environment, the difficulties of recycling, the process of recycling paper, and the finals products of recycling.
America seems to be experiencing a narrowing of disposal options (Griffin 1). Trash is either dumped into landfills, incinerated or burned, or recycled. Seventy percent of all solid waste ends up in landfills (Griffin 2). Each year, “240 million tires, 1.6 billion pens, 2 billion razors and blades and 16 billion disposable diapers” are dumped (Griffin 2). Five hundred disposable cups and 10,000 sheets of copy paper are used annually by the average office worker (“Waste and Recycling Facts” 1). In addition, 500,000 trees are needed every week to make two thirds of newspapers that are never recycled (Cooper 270). A twelve foot high wall going from Los Angeles to New York City could be built with office and writing paper that Americans use every year. Enough iron and steel is dumped by our country to continuously supply the whole nations auto manufacturers. Approximately 2.5 mi...
The production of paper and what is paper made up of is actually more complicates than it sounds. But in the simplest term, paper consists of pulp, filler, water and chemicals. Each particular paper types have their own unique ingredients that combined accordingly to the recipe for that type of paper, and each type of papers have their own characteristics such as opacity, ink setting properties, surface structure and so on; all of which make for better used in printing.
The basic process of making paper has not changed in more than 2000 years. It involves two stages: the breaking up of raw materials in water to make a suspension of individual fibbers and the formation of felted sheets by spreading this suspension on a porous surface, to drain excess water. The essential steps of papermaking by machine are identical with those of hand papermaking just much more complex. The first step in machine papermaking is the preparation of the raw material. For centuries, the main raw materials used in papermaking were cotton and linen fibbers obtained from rags. Today more than 95 percent of paper is made from wood cellulose. Wood is used mainly for the cheapest grades of paper, such as newsprint. Cotton and linen fibbers are still used for high quality writing and artist’s papers. Many kinds of wood can be used such as aspen, beach, birch fir, gum, hemlock, oak, pine, and spruce.
Therefore, recycling can protect natural resources, preserve energy and lessen pollution. If people want to save planet Earth for generations to come, then recycling is necessary. On Debate.org, the question “Should there be mandatory recycling?” was asked and 84 percent said yes, while only 16 percent said no (“Should There Be Mandatory Recycling”). Recycling is very important to the planet and can make a huge difference in so many ways. Recycling is a way of life and once a person has made the choice to follow through with the steps, recycling can become second nature. Every small contribution adds up to how the society shapes the Earth’s future. How will someone make a difference?