The Environmental Impact of Paper

Paper was produced by the Chinese from mulberry bark, by beating it. The Egyptians treated papyrus in much the same way. This treatment is done to remove the lignin from the fibers, leaving a more versatile material. Methods of paper production and the materials used have changed little through the ages, and the environmental consequences of paper production are varied.

There are two main methods of pulp manufacture, mechanical and chemical. Mechanical pulp conversion is not energy efficient, though it does convert most of the wood, into a newsprint grade paper. Chemical pulp conversion usually involves sulphur compounds, and has a low efficiency; ~50%.¹ But it has the advantage of producing a higher quality product. Kraft is another chemical process for producing paper, it involves boiling the material in sodium hydroxide. This produces a brown pulp, usually used for bags and paperboard. There are also hybrid techniques, they have similar efficiencies to chemical methods.

Often after being pulped, the paper is bleached, usually with chlorine, creating a major environmental problem in paper production. In the past bleaching was done with EC (elemental chlorine) but now ECF (environmental chlorine free) methods are usually used. Chlorine dioxide, a less toxic material, is often used. There also exist TCF (totally cholrine free) methods which use hydrogen peroxide, ozone, or oxygen, but this not as effective at conventional methods of bleaching. A problem with any method of bleaching that uses chlorine is that up to a thousand different organochlorines can be formed during the process, 300 of which have been isolated, such as dioxin's, chlorinated derivatives of phenols, acids, dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and carbon tetrachloride. ^2a,2b Many of these substances, are extremely hazardous. "There is increasingly strong evidence that some dioxins are highly carcinogenic". ³

Approximately 4,000 gallons worth of effluent (discharge from paper production, a mixture of these chemicals and water) is generated per ton of paper produced. Potential by-products recovered in various degrees from effluent are, vanillin, methanol, acetic acid, and tall oil. ⁴ Effluent is very similar to coal tar, in that a host of other useful supstances can be derived from it, and it has been abandoned by chemical related industries. They prefer to use oil, a more widely implemented source, so this fount of chemical wealth is discharged into rivers and oceans.

Other problems with paper production are the immense resources it consumes. In 1977 paper manufacturing was the fourth largest consumer of energy, 385.5 billion kWh after chemicals and allied products, primary metals industries, and petroleum and coal products.⁵ It was also the third largest consumer of fresh water, 2.295 trillion gallons, after primary metal industries, and chemical allied products. ⁶ Immense amounts of wood are also consumed, causing a whole suite of problems including, deforestation, erosion, loss of habitat. "Over 45 percent of the world's annual commercial timber cut goes to pulp, paper and board."⁷ "Though this wood increasingly comes from plantations much wood still comes from natural forests."⁸ 20-30% of the pulp material in the United States still comes from old growth in the northwest. ⁹

There is some opposition to plantations, two reasons are the loss of habitat, and the doubt that is an inefficient use of land. Plantations are single species "farms" that sometimes occupy land that was once forest. The single species nature of the plantation does not allow it to support a wide variety of wildlife. It also induces extreme nutrient depletion, some estimates are that 3 cycles worth of plantation farming causes 20,000 years worth of nutrient depletion.¹⁰ Many people would rather have forest for its various uses as opposed to the single-use of a plantation. Some things forests are used for are grazing for livestock, collection of fodder, collection of medicinal and edible plants, as wildlife reserves, historical sites, education and research, for touristry, walking, hunting and shooting, bird watching.

America consumes 90 million tons of paper annually. ¹¹ This figure is twice as much as was used in the 50's, which was double what it had been used a decade before. ¹² One fourth of the pulp for today's paper comes from recycled materials. ¹³ There are several reasons to recycle material to make pulp, it is more energy efficient, less trees get cut it down, and less ends up in landfills. Paper and paperboard account for nearly half of municipal waste, and 12% of the total.¹⁴

Recycled pulp usually undergoes a process called deinking, since people are accustomed to white paper. Deinking usually involves sodium peroxide, or sodium silicate and a detergent. These chemicals are largely recoverable. In the processing of 2,240 lb recycled pulp, 4,000 gal water 6.1E6 btu are required yielding 1,800 lb paper, 36 lb. solid waste and 4,000 gallons of effluent.¹⁵ This means 405,000 tons of solid waste are still going into our landfills (significantly less than the 22.5 million that would otherwise go in, but a bit significant amount of waste nonetheless)

So why not recycle all paper? The paper industry gives various reasons, usually that there are hidden expenses such as sorting, the energy in collection and transport, and the erratic prices of material to be recycled. Also, the system needs a certain influx of virgin material for two reasons. The first being that in such a complex system it is impossible to operate without a loss of material. Second is that after many processings the fiber may essentially wear out. Either by being broken up into pieces to small to use, or by unraveling.

Of course, there is no reason why paper should be made from wood. After all, 80 percent of the fiber the Chinese use comes from annual crops, including rice hay and wild grasses that are harvested. *16 There are many alternatives to virgin wood pulp. Various fabrics such as used and scrap denim, decommissioned currency, and alternative sources of virgin vegetable fiber, many of these are better than wood. They contain little tannin and therefore require less processing, TCF works well on them.

Hemp which has essentially no THC should not be confused with marijuana which has high levels of THC (.005-1% vs. 3-15%). ¹⁷ They are the same species of plant, but there "medicinal" properties are quite different. However government regulations imposed in the 20's before knowledge of THC forbids the growing of hemp.¹⁸ Hemp yields twice as much raw material per acre as pine.¹⁹ The efficiency of hemp to pulp conversion is not well known, because when it is processed antiquated techniques are usually used.

"However, recent laboratory research and new pulping processes (now at the demonstration level) have shown that hemp can be pulped more productively, cheaply, and with fewer negative environmental impacts than trees. Fewer chemicals and less energy are required to pulp hemp fibers. In addition, up to 80 percent of unprocessed hemp can be converted to pulp (compared with an average of 43 percent of wood fibers)."²⁰

Kenaf Hibiscus cannabinus (note name) an African plant could be imported as a fiber source, without any worry of producing another environmental problem, that is introducing a foreign species that could spread uncontrollably. Kenaf requires a longer growing season (2-3 months) than is available in most of the United States, especially where it would be grown, therefore it could not reproduce on its own.²¹

An ideal fiber source, kenaf is a hardy crop, resistant to most pests and diseases, and crowds out weeds.²² Plowing its leaves back into the other, and rotating it with other crops prevents nutrient depletion. It as good or better than trees for papermaking. ²³ The fiber yield of an acre of kenaf ranges from two to five times higher than pine's. Depending on the quality of paper desired, kenaf pulp yield can range conservatively from (high-quality) to 66(newsprint)percent higher than pine.²²

All of the afore-mentioned alternative pulp sources are used to make paper, but they are all specialty papers. There are other sources of fiber too, they include agricultural wastes and bamboo. Another alternative is to lower paper consumption. The electronic/paperless office of the early 90's was sought to do this.

There are several ways to do this. The electronic book as being developed at MIT Media Lab by Joe Jacobson, could be one such way. ²³ It requires a one time minimal amount of paper, and can be reused with great ease. The electronic book is essentially a computer that due to the use of a special ink has a book-like interface. Other ways to reduce the need for paper are to reduce packaging i.e.; reusable bags, to avoid mass mailings, and also smaller cities; resource consumption rises exponentially with population.²⁵

1, 2a, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 18, 20, 23	World Wildlife Federation Forest For Life Program http://www.panda.org/tda/forest/contents.htm
2b, 4, 5, 6, 14, 15	Pulp and Paper Manufacture -Energy Conservation and Pollution Prevention, Marshall Sittig, Noyes Data Corporation, NJ, USA 1977
11, 12, 21, 22	Kenaf Fiber Profile
17, 18, 19	Hemp factsheet
21	Kenaf Paper http://members.aol.com/kenafpaper/kenaf_paper.htm
25	Forest products and the environment, AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) New York, NY 1973
25	"Electric Tales", Frank Vizard, Popular Science, June 1997