Why do companies based in paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, plates/bowls, etc) use trees for their products, instead of faster growing plants like bamboo or hemp?

Question

Using plants that grow quicker and use less water seems like a better business decision to me.

In: 211

Answer 1

Loggers are not growing trees in irrigated fields. They are planting mountain and hill sides that are naturally watered enough to grow trees and would be forested regardless of humans planting trees or not. If the kind of tree they are using takes 10 years to mature they have 10 areas they are planting and harvest/replant one each year so that there is a constant rotation for them to obtain wood from at a fairly stable rate over the years.