Paper and the Environment

Image via WikipediaBy Michelle Anne Leah Custodio

Like the role of paper is very important to that of history and any other activities of man, it is also equally important to highlight the relationship of paper and the environment. Our continued irresponsible use of paper has a bad effect on our environment. It could have big impact on energy, landfill use, water and air pollution.

Our industrialized way of paper making affect the environment in two ways. The first one was when paper manufacturing materials acquire and process raw materials to make quality paper and the other one is through the manner that we dispose the paper that we have already used.

Almost all of the paper that we are using is made up of wood. 35 percent of all trees being cut is put into paper production. The trees do not solely exist to to provide for pulp to be used for paper production. It has other uses and one of them is to absorb the rain waters and avoid floods and other natural calamities. The need for paper is continuously rising and this automatically increases the demand for felled trees. Nowadays, it is quite sad to note that some paper manufacturing companies are continuously cutting trees without replacing them or planting a new one. This leaves our forest bald and very susceptible to nature's wrath.

Aside from the collection of raw material for paper production, the process of paper consumption is also found to be detrimental to the environment. The use of large paper milling machineries uses a large amount of energy! This amount of energy, if conserved, could actually be used to light up an entire indigenous community residing in a far-flung province. Or even closer to home, the same energy could even be given to the energy consumers in the urban residences. This would give us enough energy to sustain us in our midst without the need to pay for those expensive electrical charges.

And after using that paper that already harmed the environment on the way that it is produced, the environment would again be a victim on how we plan to dispose it. Did you know that 35 percent of all of our municipal solid waste is actually made up of paper or paper products? If we decided to become a bit wiser when it comes to using this very important commodity and if we would also learn to dispose them properly then we could save up to landfill use. Like energy, the space that these large amount of paper wastes occupy could actually be used for something else. Something that should really be disposed and is no longer recyclable or reusable. We have a scarcity in landfills so we should learn to use them wisely.

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