Overview

Paper remains the dominant and essential vehicle of modern communications. In addition to such traditional products as newspapers, books, magazines, and writing paper, a new world of mail order catalogs, marketing and promotional materials, and household papers has developed in recent years. In addition, far from ushering in a paperless office, the advent of computers and other electronic equipment has fueled paper demand. By one estimate, personal computers alone account for 115 billion sheets of paper per year worldwide [1]. Communications, however, makes up less than half of the world’s paper use; a bigger share is now taken by the booming packaging industry [2]. In many Western countries, high paper consumption has come to be regarded as a symbol of overconsumption and of the wastefulness of modern society.

In the developing world, paper consumption is growing quite rapidly -- by more than 7 percent annually between 1980 and 1994 -- but average per capita consumption remains low, at about 15 kilograms per year [3]. This is well below the 30 to 40 kilograms of paper per capita per year considered the minimum level necessary to meet basic needs for communication and literacy. In the industrialized countries, consumption is vastly greater -- 333 kilograms per capita per year in the United States and 160 in Western Europe [4].

Unlike consumption trends in other mature commodity sectors, paper consumption shows little sign of decoupling from economic growth. Globally, paper consumption has increased by a factor of 20 this century and has tripled over the past several decades [5]. (See Paper Use is Growing Worldwide.)

Paper use is growing worldwide

Annual per capita paper and paperboard consumption

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), State of the World's Forests 1997 (FAO, Rome, 1997), p.191.

Paper consumption is projected to grow by about 50 percent by 2010. The biggest increase—over 80 percent—is expected to occur in developing countries in Asia, where demand is being driven by rapid growth of both incomes and population [6]. North America and Europe are expected to be able to maintain their current balance between demand and supply. Asia, however, despite having the world’s fastest increases in local wood production, is likely to experience shortfalls in the supply of all wood products, but especially pulp and paper, soon after the turn of the century [7]. The critical questions concern how, and from where, the future demand for paper will be met.

The paper cycle

Every stage of the paper production and consumption cycle is associated with a range of potential problems. Most wood fiber, from which pulp and paper are made, comes from natural forests managed for timber production in North America, Europe, and Asia, and from plantations around the world. Only 2 percent of wood fiber comes from tropical rainforests and virgin temperate hardwood forests [8].

As demand rises, pressure on unmanaged forests is likely to increase, especially on the largely untouched boreal forests of the former Soviet Union. Plantations, which in 1993 supplied 29 percent of global wood pulp, may offer one solution [9] [10]. In theory, the world’s current total demand for wood fiber for pulp could be supplied from high-yielding industrial plantations totaling about 40 million hectares (roughly the size of Sweden or Paraguay) -- an area equivalent to about 1.5 percent of the world’s closed forest area [11]. However, intensively managed plantations often involve environmental, social, or aesthetic trade-offs compared with natural forests.

Pulp- and papermaking can be a highly polluting process. Liquid effluents from mills include a range of organic, toxic, and chlorinated organic matter that adversely affects water quality and can be lethal to fish. While large-scale paper producers in some industrialized countries have succeeded in achieving closed-cycle bleaching, in which no effluent is discharged, serious problems are still common in small pulp and paper mills in developing countries [12].

References and notes

1. Steven Anzovin, The Green PC: Making Choices That Make a Difference (McGraw-Hill, Toronto, 1993), cited in John Young, Global Network: Computers in a Sustainable Society,Worldwatch Paper 115 (Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C.,1993), p. 42.

2. International Institute for Environment and Development(IIED), Towards a Sustainable Paper Cycle: An Independent Study on the Sustainability of the Pulp and Paper Industry, report prepared for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (IIED, London, 1996), p. 16.

3. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), State of the World's Forests 1997 (FAO, Rome, 1997), pp. 47, 51.

4. R. Robins et al., "Rethinking Paper Consumption," International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Discussion Paper (IIED, London, September 1996), cited in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Sustainable Consumption and Production (OECD, Paris, 1997), p. 32.

5. Ibid.

6. Op. cit. 3, p. 78.

7. Op. cit. 3, pp. 80-81.

8. Op. cit. 2, pp. 33-34.

9. Op. cit. 2, p. 34.

10. Roger Sedjo and Daniel Botkin, "Forest Plantations to Spare Natural Forests," Environment, Vol. 39, No. 10 (1997), pp. 15-20.

11. Op. cit. 2, p. 36.

12. Op. cit. 2, pp. 117-124.

Pollution could actually be worsened by a physical or economic scarcity of wood fiber in the future, particularly in developing countries. Shortages could encourage greater use of nonwood fibers for papermaking—already a significant raw material in China and India. Nonwood fibers from crops like kenaf or from the leftovers of sugarcane pressing, however, are not a perfect substitute for wood pulp. Agricultural products such as these usually require the use of more fertilizers and pesticides, which can then lead to more pollution. Use of nonwood fibers also makes chemical recovery more difficult because of the material’s high silica component. In addition, nonwood fibers are bulky, expensive to transport, and tend to be available only seasonally [13] [14]. However, there are encouraging signs that developing countries may be willing to import paper rather than to incur such high environmental costs. China has recently closed nearly 50,000 small paper mills and other factories that cause high levels of pollution [15] [16].

In industrialized countries, concerns have focused equally, if not more so, on the ever-increasing volumes of waste paper being created. Disposal of paper products in landfill sites leads to emissions of the greenhouse gas methane; in addition, there are suspicions that incineration of chlorine-bleached paper causes the release of dioxins into the atmosphere. Disposal facilities of any kind are increasingly difficult to establish due to public hostility. These problems, together with consumers’ perceptions of wasteful paper use and excessive packaging, have led to numerous government, private-sector, and voluntary initiatives intended to increase recycling rates. Between 1970 and 1994, worldwide paper recovery rates rose from 23 percent to 37 percent; at the same time, many countries have achieved considerably higher recovery rates [17]. (See Paper recycling: Rising volume, growing importance.)

Paper recycling: Rising volume, growing importance

Paper recovery as a percentage of paper and paperboard production

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), FAOSTAT Statistical Database. Available online at http://www.fao.org/ (FAO, Rome, 1997).

The use of paper is generally considered essential for modern living, and the current paper cycle cannot be considered sustainable while the needs of the majority of people in developing countries remain unmet. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests that no immediate crisis exists in terms of meeting near-term demand for pulp and paper worldwide. Over the longer term, however, anticipated growth in demand for wood products of all types will probably necessitate changes in forest management practices, such as greater reliance on plantations and even the use of wood products grown on smaller scales in farm woodlots and agroforestry systems [18].

Improved operations in pulp and paper mills is an urgent need on both environmental and health grounds. Conservative estimates suggest that bringing all mills worldwide up to a uniform "good" environmental standard could require an investment of about US$20 billion, plus annual operating costs of more than US$8 billion [19]. However, forest degradation and pollution are currently most severe in regions where financial and technical resources are limited and demand for paper is projected to rise most steeply. In the developed countries, additional measures, including mandated recycling targets, certification or labeling schemes to promote the use of sustainably produced paper products, and financial incentives for paper recovery, will probably be necessary to secure greater efficiency in current patterns of paper consumption.

References and notes

13. Op. cit. 3, p. 75.

14. Op. cit. 10, pp. 16, 20.

15. Associated Press News Beijing, October 23, cited in op. cit. 3, p. 75.

16. Op. cit. 2, pp. 75-78.

17. Op. cit. 2, pp. 186-210.

18. Op. cit. 3, pp. 6, 74.

19. Op. cit. 2, pp. 126-127.