Benefits and Sustainability of Paper

A mushy, wet mound of ground up mulberry bark, linen and hemp spread thin and left to dry in the sun. That’s how Chinese scholar Ts'ai Lun made the first sheets of paper more than 2,000 years ago. Little did he know his creation would become one of the world’s greatest inventions.

Paper is a timeless product, mainly because it’s one of the few truly renewable resources on our planet. These interesting facts support why paper does more good than harm when it’s made and recycled responsibly:

	Energy-wise, burning paper is not better than recycling it. In fact, paper fibers can be recycled up to a dozen times before they’re too short for papermaking.
	Paper recovery today has nearly doubled, thanks to the paper industry setting and achieving incremental paper recovery goals since 1990.
	The number of forestland acres in the U.S. has essentially remained unchanged during the past century (approx. 755 million acres).
	The volume of annual net U.S. timber growth is actually 36 percent higher than the annual volume of trees removed.

Western States has many products that use paper wisely. Learn more.

	To get more facts about the positive effects and reasons to use paper, check out http://www.twosides.us/facts.
	You can also view a video and poster created through TwoSides that promote the use of paper and bust some common misconceptions.

Sources: Paper University (www.tappi.org), Society of American Foresters (www.safnet.org), www.conservatree.org and www.paperrecycles.org.