Cathy Swan's List: Go Green

• Paper products are the single biggest component of waste disposal sites.
• the world's largest generator of air and water pollutants, waste products, and the gases that cause climate change
• Industrial nations with 20 percent of the world's population consume 87 percent of the world's writing and printing papers.
• our demand for paper and the unacceptable large ecological footprint

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• It has been estimated that recycling half the world’s paper would avoid the harvesting of 20 million acres (80,000 km²) of forestland.^[1
• The average per capita paper use in the USA in 2001 was 700 pounds (320 kg). The average per capita paper use worldwide was 110 pounds (50 kg)
• Recycling 1 short ton (0.91 t) of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7 thousand US gallons (26 m³) of water, 3 cubic yards (2.3 m³) of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil (84 US gal or 320 l), and 4,100 kilowatt-hours (15 GJ) of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for six months.^[2
• 115 billion sheets of paper are used annually for personal computers [Source: Worldwatch Institute]. The average daily web user prints 28 pages daily [Source: Gartner group and HP]

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• How many recycled newspapers does it take to save a tree?
• • See below section "What I ignored". How can your students correct the equation?
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•   N = 1,660.0 / W  (if you measure in POUNDS) 

  or 

    N = 26,553.6 / W  (if you measure in OUNCES, which is far more accurate) 

  • Great ongoing activity for math classes. Could be a contest!

• What I Ignored 

  The calculation also assumes that newspapers are 100% recyclable, which is not particularly true.  You can vary the degree of "recyclability" and determine what it would take to save trees accordingly. 

  I also ignored the energy and economic costs associated with growing, cutting, and processing live trees to make pulp and newspapers, as compared with costs for recycling (it ain't free, folks). 

  Including such factors would be a nice student project as well.  Gotta leave something for you to do!

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• paper represents roughly 40% of the  total waste generated in the U.S. by weight
• Of the more than 80 million  tons of paper waste generated in 1994, about 29 million tons were recovered, yielding a  recovery rate of about 35%

• Paper   Industry Statistics
• Every year, Americans use more   than 90 million short tons of paper and paperboard.   That's an average of 700 pounds of paper products per   person each year. Every year in America, more than 2   billion books, 350 million magazines, and 24 billion   newspapers are published.