Eli5 why we use trees to produce paper.

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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

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I know this is an unsatisfying answer, but the actual answer is that it’s most profitable to make almost all paper from trees.

There are paper products that are made from something other than trees. For example, I tend to think of US money as being made of paper, but it’s actually made out of 75% cotton and 25% linen. Now, strictly speaking, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not paper, because cotton and linen are fibrous plant material just like wood pulp is, but it’s probably not what you normally think of when you think of paper.

But for normal paper, as it turns out, you make the most profit by growing fast growing and easily pulpable trees like pines. They have an advantage compared to a lot of other sources in that the cellulose fibers are longer than you get from many other sources, so the paper is stronger. And although they certainly don’t grow as tall as quickly as bamboo, they grow pretty darn quickly.

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