Winford Chang
Paper is something that many of us can’t imagine going a day without. Paper is used in school, in work, and in currency. Paper though is also affecting the global environment seriously. Through extensive use of paper we are cutting down on the natural resource we use to create it, trees. Trees provide oxygen for us, improve air quality, and support our wildlife.
Each year in the US alone more than 78 thousand tons of paper are made on average. With each household on average throwing away almost 13 thousand separate pieces of paper. By itself it does not seem much but added together it can make a staggering amount of paper. With all that paper we need trees to sustain and make more of it with, so as expected the amount of trees used each year also make a staggering amount. Coming to around 68 million trees each year being cut down to make paper in the US you can see how paper is such a big environmental problem.
There are many ways to help slow down and prevent this continuous cycle of tree cutting though. Spreading awareness around his problem is one of the biggest ways you can help because one person doing something cannot amount to much in this huge world we live in. Paper is a very recyclable and reusable material. Next time when you are throwing away pieces of unused paper remember to throw them in the right bin. Using less paper in general too is also a very good option. In reality we end up throwing away a lot of paper that could have gone to use and remembering to put all of what paper we made to use is very important.
Below is a paper processing machine that can roll hundreds of pounds of paper at a time.
