Each year, Americans recycle 43 million tons of paper. Some states like New Jersey require residents and businesses to recycle paper while it is voluntary in many others. Yet, only about 50 percent of all paper used in the United States ends up being recycled. When you learn about the different products that can be made from recycled paper, you will want to recycle even more. About 42 percent of the paper recycled in the United States is headed overseas before or after new products are made.
The average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper every year. That is the equivalent of cutting down over one tree for every office worker in the country. If just one office worker recycled all the paper that he or she uses in a year, then about 7,000 recycled pieces of paper could be made from it. Even paper recycling in New Jersey could make a huge difference in natural resources.
Not all paper that is recycled ends up being made into new sheets of paper. Some of it is used to make paper towels and napkins. Each American uses an average of 2,000 two-ply napkins annually. Collectively, those paper napkins weigh more than 5,699,500 pounds. Annually, Americans use more than 13 billion pounds of paper towels. Just think how much space would be saved in landfills if paper napkins and paper towels were recycled. Using recycled paper for napkins and paper towels is a great solution to save the earth.
Approximately 17 billion greeting cards are purchased in the United States annually. Most of those cards are made from new paper requiring the cutting down of one tree for about every 8,000 greeting cards sold. If every greeting card was made from recycled paper instead, then about 2 million trees could be saved annually.
One of the easiest products to make from recycled paper is toilet paper. The average American uses more than 50 pounds of toilet paper annually. That equates to over 16,285,000 pounds of toilet paper used every year. Just think, if all that toilet paper was made from recycled paper how many trees could be saved.
It is just not trees that are being saved when you choose to recycle paper as many other natural resources are saved as well. On average, it takes 130 gallons of water to grow one tree that can be cut down to make 8,000 sheets of paper. It also requires 50 gallons of water to process that tree into white paper. It takes 17 trees to make one metric ton of paper. It also requires over 10,000-kilowatt hours of electricity and 680 gallons of oil to make a metric ton of paper.
If you are ready to start paper recycling in New Jersey or Eastern Pennsylvania, then call All County Recycling at (609) 393-6445. Their friendly professionals will be glad to assist you in getting started.
