Recycling of paper has several important benefits: It saves waste paper from occupying the homes of people and producing
methane as it breaks down. Because paper
fibre contains
carbon (originally absorbed by the tree from which it was produced), recycling keeps the carbon locked up for longer and out of the atmosphere. Industrialized papermaking affects the environment both upstream (where raw materials are acquired and processed) and downstream (waste-disposal impacts). In 2023, 92% of pulp was made from wood sources (in most modern mills only 9–16% of pulp is made from pulp logs; the rest comes from waste wood that was traditionally burnt). Paper production accounts for about 35% of felled trees. Recycling one ton of
newsprint saves about 1 ton of wood while recycling 1 ton of printing or copier paper saves slightly more than 2 tons of wood. This is because
kraft pulping requires twice as much wood since it removes
lignin to produce higher quality fibres than mechanical pulping processes. Relating tons of paper recycled to the number of trees not cut is meaningless, since tree size varies tremendously and is the major factor in how much paper can be made from how many trees. In addition, trees raised specifically for pulp production account for 16% of world pulp production, old growth forests 9% and second- and third- and more generation forests account for the balance. Both policies settle on a different ratio of stringency to reasonable output of goods, and are thus preferred by varying parties.
Energy Energy consumption is reduced by recycling, although there is debate concerning the actual energy savings realized. The
Energy Information Administration claims a 40% reduction in energy when paper is recycled versus paper made with unrecycled pulp, Some estimates claim that paper recycling is capable of saving 70% of the energy required to create fresh paper. Some calculations show that recycling one ton of newspaper saves about of electricity, although this may be too high (see comments below on unrecycled pulp). This is enough electricity to power a 3-bedroom European house for an entire year or enough energy to heat and air-condition the average North American home for almost six months. Recycling paper to make pulp consumes more fossil fuels than making new pulp via the
kraft process; these mills generate most of their energy from burning waste wood (bark, roots, sawmill waste) and byproduct lignin (black liquor). Pulp mills producing new mechanical pulp use large amounts of energy; a very rough estimate of the electrical energy needed is 10 gigajoules per
tonne of pulp (2500 kW·h per
short ton).
Landfill use In 2019, about 110 million metric tons of paper products were disposed in the United States. Of that, 56% was landfilled and 38% recycled, with the rest being
incinerated. Roughly one quarter of
municipal solid waste was paper products. Landfilling paper products led to an estimated $4 billion in lost economic value.
Water and air pollution The
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that recycling causes 35% less
water pollution and 74% less
air pollution than making virgin paper.
Pulp mills can be sources of both air and water pollution, especially if they are producing
bleached pulp. Modern mills produce considerably less pollution than those of a few decades ago. Recycling paper provides an alternative fibre for papermaking. Recycled pulp can be bleached with the same chemicals used to bleach virgin pulp, but
hydrogen peroxide and
sodium hydrosulfite are the most common bleaching agents. Recycled pulp, or paper made from it, is known as PCF (process chlorine free) if no chlorine-containing compounds were used in the recycling process.
Greenhouse gas emissions Studies on paper and cardboard production estimate the emissions of recycling paper to be 0.2 to 1.5 kg CO2-equivalent/kg material. This is about 70% of the CO2 emissions connected with production of virgin material. ==Recycling statistics==