Everybody uses paper. Why are we waiting for trees to grow only to cut them down to produce paper? It takes an incredible amount of time for a tree to grow, whereas other plants grow faster, why not use those plants
In: 79
Because tree cellulose is very durable. Grassy plants tend to grow very quickly, but produce soft, vulnerable fibers that many living things seek as food supply. Tree cellulose is decomposed by a much more limited spectrum of insects and fungi. Cotton paper is not unheard of, but its longevity does not match that of regular tree pulp paper. There is relatively recent research on using other materials for paper production, such as hemp or cotton, but so far tree pulp and recycling remain the most accessible options for such a robust material.
Hemp is gradually working its way into the paper industry. Unlike Marijuana hemp is not used for the thc.
Textiles: Hemp can be used to make clothing, shoes, rope, nets, carpet, and tarps
Industrial: Hemp can be used to make paper, building materials, auto parts, upholstery, and fiber for cloth and other textile items
https://extension.psu.edu/industrial-hemp-production
Most paper is currently produced from managed forests rather than old growth forests. Like huge tree farms. These tree farms produce wood that is specifically suited for paper pulp production, so overall they’re efficient and economical. Although they take a while to grow, trees are renewable resources.
I have used bamboo paper but its characteristics usually aren’t that great for many commercial printing applications. There are synthetic ‘papers’ but they’re often made from petroleum products and require special printing processes.
There are almost 200 million acres of pulp wood forests in the US. You can drive interstates for hours in the south and hardly ever leave pine forests.
While ecologists aren’t happy with the low diversity of plant life that comes from commercial tree farms, they are still native trees that provide homes for all sorts of animals. Some animals thrive in mature forest land, some need to live among seedlings. Florida’s Scrub Jay needs 25+ acre tracts of mostly cleared pine & oak land to live. So it does great in forests that are cut for timber or pulp.
Even if bamboo would be better for pulp production, it would be an environmental disaster to replace all those pines since American animals aren’t Pandas.
I’m a small scale pine tree farmer. My land has bears, endangered turtles and snakes, endangered fox squirrels, gators, and lots of other critters. I’m USDA and state certified tree farm which requires that I operate a plan to continually improve water quality and habitat. So the land provides more benefits than just paper.
Trees grow fast. Not an “incredible amount of time”. Wood pulp is cheap and plentiful in North America and when replanted, grows quickly. Cotton makes better paper but it’s way too expensive. Hemp makes good paper but it’s not available in quantity (tax act of 1937 and the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, virtually banned the production of industrial hemp…maybe it will start up again). Practically anything can make paper but wood pulp is cheap and plentiful. Arguments about ecology and poison pulp/paper mills will continue for a long time. Pulpwood is CHEAP.
Trees are just ideal for paper. the fibers make good paper, and trees grow all over the place. Bamboo is starting to make its way into more paper products though.
1. Growing trees is not very manpower intensive.
2. The modern paper process prefers tree fibers. Since tree cells need to be more rigid they contain more cellulose. Paper used to be made from linen, cotton and hemp (textile fibers), but modern paper is cheaper although not as durable (because the modern paper process leaves a lot of acid in the paper, which means the paper becomes brittle after only a few years).
3. The trees preferred for paper (pine&spruce) grow pretty fast. The kind of wood used in papermills might be from a tree that took just 10-20 years to grow to full height (which makes the timbers too soft&weak for construction).
we can partially blame William Randolph Hurst.
Hurst was a vertically integrated newspaper publisher.
he owned pieces of the entire production cycle chopping down trees all the way to printing on paper & distribution.
he was a very rich & powerful man.
When it was proposed that we should be making paper from hemp rather than trees – hemp being deep rooted, easy to grow, replenishes fast, can make paper, rope, fabric, etc. – Hurst stood to lose lots of money if we moved away from trees.
He commissioned several studies into the harmful effects of marijuana. note, these were not honest, peer reviewed, double blind studies, they were specifically designed to show how dangerous & evil marijuana is.
once growing pot was illegal, that ruled out hemp along with it.
Corn fodder was researched for paper production. Corn unlike other plants does not increase the percentage of lignin as it matures. The removal of lignin is one of the most expensive processes in paper making. However the cellulose molecules in corn are to long and tangle degrading the quality of the paper. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298141569_Characteristics_of_pulp_and_paper_produced_from_corn_stalk](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298141569_Characteristics_of_pulp_and_paper_produced_from_corn_stalk)
We don’t generally. Trees are cut down for timber. Cutting timber leaves literal tons of waste left overs which are only useful for a few things. It can be made into press board or engineered wood, bark chips, or can be used to make paper.
The large companies producing timber product such as Weyerhaeuser plant millions of fast growing trees to harvest on their land as well.
Latest Answers