From Trees to T-issues: Raising Awareness on Our Beloved Trees
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Yet another display has been created to raise awareness on trees and their usage, or rather, the waste of them. Lukas Koh—a Korean designer—created T-issue (Tree Issue) to raise such awareness about sustainability, in a most simple way. By using a tissue box made from 100% recycled paper and the graphic of a tree, Koh is making an effort to help people understand the serious link between trees and the tissue use that comes from them. In other words, it shows people the ratio between how many tissues people use to how many trees are cut down in order to supply the tissues in the first place.
This is certainly a fascinating concept, and hopefully a real eye-opener for some. However, apart from visual displays, how much do you know about tree usage? More specifically, how much do you know about tree-to-paper usage, or wastefulness? Here are some statistics that will give a clearer understanding of the tree-to-paper ratio:
- 1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper = 24 trees
- 1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint = 12 trees
- 1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses = .6 trees (or 60% of 1 tree)
- 1 ream (500 sheets) = 6% of a tree
- 1 ton of paper used for magazines = 15.36 trees
- 1 ton of paper used for newsmagazines and most catalogs = 7.68 trees
If you’re wondering about usage per country, well, that may take a while to explain, but here is some basic information on that:
- The average U.S. citizen uses more than 300 kilograms of paper annually, and the average Japanese uses 250 kilograms. People in developing countries, in contrast, use only 18 kilograms of paper a year on average—in India, the figure is 4 kilos, while in 20 countries in Africa, it’s less than 1 kilo. (The United Nations estimates that 30-40 kilos is the minimum needed to meet basic literacy and communication needs.)
- That being said, the U.S. produces and uses a third of the world’s paper.
- Making paper from recycled content rather than virgin fiber creates 74 percent less air pollution and 35 percent less water pollution. However, the share of total paper fiber coming from recycled material has only grown from 20% in 1921 to 38% today.
- The group Environmental Defense estimates that if the entire U.S. catalog industry switched its publications to just 10-percent recycled content paper, the savings in wood alone would be enough to stretch a 1.8-meter-high fence across the United States seven times.
- The pulp and paper industry is the world’s fifth largest industrial consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.
That’s a lot of paper and a lot of trees to be wasted. Luckily, there are ways you can help! The most obvious of which is recycling. A lot of paper can be recycled, and it does not have to be intact; shredded or cut up paper can be recycled too. Types of paper that can be recycled include:
- Cardboard
- Computer Paper
- Construction Paper
- Envelopes
- Junk Mail
- Magazines
- Newspaper
- Phonebooks
- Shredded
And they can then be recycled into things like:
- Business Cards
- Calendars
- Egg Cartons
- Newspaper
- Notebooks
- Paper Bags
- Paper Towels
- Phonebooks
- Stamps
- Tissues
- Toilet Paper
Think of how often you use these items (in either list) per day, week, month and year. It really adds up quicker than you may imagine. Apart from recycling, there are other easy steps you can take, such as buying products made from recycled paper. Another is, if you can eliminate the use of paper entirely, do so! Instead of getting your bills or account statements mailed to you, view and pay them online. Instead of sending tons of cards out for the holidays, send your loved ones an E-card. Try using a cloth handkerchief instead of boxes of paper tissues. If you have to write a paper—for school, work or any reason—type it out on your computer instead of throwing away draft after draft. Best of all, you can actually make your own paper at home! Check out these sites for instructions:
Pioneer Thinking: Making Handmade Paper in 10 Easy Steps
Fun & Learning: Make Paper!
eHow: How to Make Artisan Paper
Associated Content: How to Make Recycled Paper at Home
By Heidi Marshall
Additional resources:
Conservatree
Tappi: Paper University
NWF: Paper Use and Recycling
Good Stuff? – Paper
Living Tree Paper Co.
Treecycle Recycled Paper
ThinkGreen: Newspapers
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Tags: environment, Nature, paper, Recycling, sustainability, trees
This is a really great article, and has given me a lot of insight. I enjoy statistics that really break it down so that people can see how we really impact the environment.