Tree Free Paper
Uploaded by AlPhA on Feb 21, 2002
Eventually, at the current rate of deforestation, there will be no trees. We must look for alternatives to wood fibers. I for one would not like see the day that money hungry business man cut down the last tree for such a now useless object such as paper. Nowadays, with computers, there is no need for paper other than for printing. Paper use can be seriously decreased if we would just accept computers as a superior alternative to paper. If we would start using more Palm Pilot like devices and use laptops instead of paper at school, deforestation would most likely not exist. Perhaps, more trees would be planted rather than being chopped down. Using computers is just one alternative, there are many more which most people are unaware of.
Some of the biggest examples of alternatives to paper other than the use of electronic devices are to use substances similar to wood fibers that can be used to create paper. Major newspapers are experimenting with the use of non-wood fibers as well widely known companies such as Sony. Kinko’s, perhaps the most popular place to make copies, allows you to make copies on non-wood paper. There are two categories of alternatives to paper excluding electronic devices, one is to use crops and the other is to use Agricultural waste.
The most popular crop solution is a plant called kenaf. It is an annual crop meaning that it only grows once a year and it can reach heights of 12-18 feet within five months. Kenaf is the most popular choice, but I don’t see why agricultural waste is not more popular. There are 160 million tons of agricultural waste produced every year and 30 million tons of paper sold in a typical year. That’s 30 million tons of waste which could be use more efficiently rather than taking up more space on this planet. Agricultural waste provides more opportunities and less challenge. South pine fibers are the best choice of wood to create paper. Up to 5x more paper can be produced using south pine rather than the wood being used now.
From the numerous amounts of alternatives to destroying this planet, humans might still not notice that there could be alternatives that can actually help this planet. The major factor in the acceptance of these alternatives is the rate of acceptance for people. If everybody would start using paper made from kenaf...