Recycling reduces the total number of trees that are cut down to make paper and can reduce overall demand for wood. But more importantly, paper recycling saves forests. By substituting used paper for trees, recycling reduces the overall intensity of forest management needed to meet a given demand for paper, and the pressure to convert natural forests and ecologically sensitive areas like wetlands into tree plantations. With recycling, not only will fewer trees be harvested to make paper, those tress that are harvested can be produced using methods that have less impact on the environment. Thus, recycling helps preserve the full range of values that forest ecosystems provide, including clean water, wildlife habitat and biodiversity.

Generally yes, but replanting trees is not the same thing as preserving forests. Growing demand for paper has fueled the rapid conversion of natural forests to tree plantations. In the U.S. South, where most of the trees used to make paper are grown, the area of natural pine forest declined from about 72 million acres in 1953 to 33 million acres in 1999. During the same period, pine plantations grew from 2 million acres to 32 million acres, and are projected to reach 54 million acres in 2040, in large part at the expense of natural forests. While pine plantations are excellent at growing wood, they are far less suited than natural forests to providing wildlife habitat and preserving biodiversity. By extending the overall fiber supply, paper recycling can help to reduce the pressure to convert remaining natural forests into tree farms.

Carbon dioxide emissions from wood or paper are not counted towards the total greenhouse gas emissions. As a tree grows, it removes carbon dioxide from the air. Once the carbon is trapped in the wood it can be released in a number of ways. Parts of the wood can be burned for energy while making pulp; paper that is thrown away can be burned in a municipal waste incinerator; or methane that is produced when the paper decomposes in a landfill can be transformed into carbon dioxide through oxidation or incineration. Because the CO₂ was taken out of the air by the tree during its growth, the release back into the air does not result in a net increase of greenhouse gas emissions.

Producing recycled paper uses much less total energy than producing virgin paper. Depending on the grade, producing recycled paper may use more or less purchased energy (a subset of total energy), in the form of fossil fuels and purchased electricity. Virgin freesheet grades require slightly less purchased energy to produce than recycled ones, because most of their energy needs are met by burning wood-derived process waste. Virgin groundwood papers, by contrast, require more purchased energy to produce than do recycled groundwood papers.

Both energy sources have significant– if different–environmental impacts. Extraction and use of fossil fuels for energy depletes a non-renewable resource and releases air pollutants and greenhouse gases. But there are analogous impacts associated with extracting and using wood for energy. First, growing and harvesting trees can deplete a non-renewable resource–natural forests. As noted above, intensive management practices used to grow trees for paper– including both the part of those trees that goes into the paper itself and the part that is burned for energy–can adversely affect water quality, biodiversity, habitat for endangered plants and animals, and the integrity of natural forest ecosystems. Thus, while intensive management can arguably regenerate the quantity of wood, it cannot renew many of the ecological values of natural forests. Second, burning wood for energy creates air pollution just as burning fossil fuels does. On a lifecycle basis, when all energy sources are considered, releases of air pollutants are generally much lower for recycled than for virgin paper. Third, even when recycled paper production uses more fossil fuel than its virgin counterpart, on a lifecycle basis the recycled system generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions–see next question.

The environmental advantages of recycled paper hold true even when more fossil fuelderived energy is used to produce it. (As noted above, this is true only for freesheet grades.) In the landfill, where 80% of discarded paper ends up, the decomposition of paper produces methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. Paper recycling recovers used paper from the waste stream, directly reducing the amount of paper landfilled. Thus for recycled papers, any increase in greenhouse gas emissions during manufacturing is more than outweighed by reductions in emissions from landfills.

Lifecycle analysis shows that even after the energy used to collect, transport, and process used paper is accounted for, the recycled paper system uses much less total energy than the virgin paper system. This is because the energy needed to recover used paper and get it back to the mill is quite small relative to the energy saved by using recovered paper rather than trees to manufacture new paper. Don't forget that making virgin paper also requires energy to cut, collect and transport trees to the mill, all of it fossil fuel-derived. And while the distances are shorter, the magnitude is greater - between 2.2 and 4.4 tons of wood are cut and transported for every ton of virgin pulp, versus 1.4 tons of waste paper for a ton of recycled pulp. Thus, the energy required to obtain and process trees (for virgin paper) and used paper (for recycled paper) is quite comparable.

The Paper Calculator accounts for much of the transportation throughout the life cycle of a paper product. This includes harvesting trees, collecting recycled paper and transporting commodity chemicals, but not transportation from a paper mill to a final user. You are welcome to include the energy and emissions from this step yourself.

Aside from reducing total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, switching to recycled paper cuts emissions of other air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (which contribute to smog), and particulates (which contribute to respiratory problems). It also reduces the volume and improves the quality of wastewater from the paper mill.

Wastewater volume is a meaningful environmental measure, as it indicates both the amount of fresh water needed in production and the potential impact of wastewater discharges - that's why it's often regulated. The withdrawal and return of large amounts of water from rivers and streams can have major ecological impacts, which are made even worse at drier times of year and during droughts. And even treated wastewater carries with it various processrelated pollutants. Our side-by-side comparison found that on average, virgin paper production requires substantially more water and yields wastewater that has significantly higher levels of major water pollutants than does recycled paper production.

Recycled mills do generate more solid waste, mostly in the form of sludge, than virgin paper mills. However, that increase is more than offset by the reduction in solid waste that comes from diverting paper from the waste stream. And the same inks, coatings, and fillers present in recycling mill sludge would go into the ground anyway if the paper were landfilled instead of recycled. Finally, recyclers are increasingly finding ways to reclaim and reutilize some components of recycled paper sludge, which can't happen if that paper goes to a landfill or incinerator.

Many are, thanks to environmental regulations implemented during the last several decades. They would be even cleaner if they increased their use of recycled fiber.

The environmental advantages of recycling extend well beyond saving landfill space, which varies cyclically as well as regionally across the United States. Paper recycling also reduces environmental impacts "upstream," in the forest and at the paper mill. By adding to the available fiber supply, paper recycling conserves wood and other forest resources, and reduces environmental impacts (energy use, air and water pollution, and solid waste) during manufacturing. Finally, by reducing paper's contribution to landfills, recycling avoids releases of methane and other pollutants, and reduces the need to site additional landfills where such releases would occur.

On a national level, when paper is thrown away, 20% is sent to an incinerator and 80% goes to a landfill; once in the landfill, parts of the paper begin to decompose and release methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential 25 times higher than CO₂. According to the 2009 U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory, just over half of the methane released in landfills is converted back to CO₂ through oxidation or combustion, with nearly 25% being burned for energy recovery. This is up from 30% conversion in 1995, with only 11% going to useful energy. The CO₂ is now in the same form that it was when the growing tree took it out of the air, and is not included in the total greenhouse gas emissions.

While these national statistics are used in the Paper Calculator, the amount of methane captured and converted to useful energy will vary based on your location.

Each time paper is diverted from the waste stream and used to make recycled paper, there is a direct reduction in solid waste. Think of it this way - if you use a piece of paper once, then erase and use it again before throwing it away, you create less waste than if you used two pieces of paper and threw them both away. Similarly, even if a sheet of recycled paper is eventually landfilled, the recycling process still reduces the total amount of paper landfilled.

Postconsumer materials are finished products that have served their intended end use and would otherwise end up in a landfill or incinerator. Preconsumer materials include trim and scrap from manufacturing processes (e.g., the conversion of paper rolls into envelopes) and overissue publications. Unlike preconsumer fiber, postconsumer fiber is not typically included in paper at any significant level unless purchasers specify it. Buying paper with postconsumer recycled content achieves direct reductions in wood, water, and total energy use, releases of pollutants during manufacturing, and solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions from paper decomposing in landfills. It also supports business and community recycling programs, and creates an incentive for paper manufacturers to use more paper diverted from disposal.

Most paper called "recycled" is made from a blend of virgin and postconsumer fiber. Right now, due to functional and economic issues (including lack of demand) the most widely available and cost-competitive level of postconsumer recycled content in catalog paper is 10%. Given the amount of paper that the catalog industry uses (3.6 million tons in 2001), even a switch to 10% yields big benefits, and is a critical first step to achieving higher levels in the future. Obviously, the higher the postconsumer recycled content, the bigger the environmental benefits.

It's easy to claim that because one is only a small part of the problem, it's not worth being part of the solution. Such an attitude accomplishes nothing, and in the case of the catalog industry, has no basis in reality. The catalog industry used 3.6 million tons of paper in 2001 - 12% of all printing and writing paper consumed in the United States. Obviously, if such large purchasers started specifying recycled paper, there would be a substantial increase in used paper recovery. But increasing the recovery rate is a secondary concern. What should be foremost in the minds of paper users are the environmental benefits of switching to recycled paper. If the entire catalog industry switched to just 10% postconumer recycled paper, the savings in wood use alone would be enough to stretch a six-foot fence across the United States seven times. Higher levels of postconsumer recycled content will achieve even larger environmental gains.

Certainly not from an environmental standpoint. The benefits of substituting recycled for virgin fiber are generally larger in higher grades (especially those made from chemical pulp) than lower grades such as newsprint, corrugated boxes, and tissue. And from a supply perspective, there is more than enough recovered paper to supply recycled pulp for both printing and writing papers and lower grades.