Delving into rubbish

Delving into rubbish The problem of waste in this country defies description and so in an attempt to bring home the enormity of the problem it is tempting to resort to statistics. Amazing fact number 1: the volume of waste produced in the UK in one hour would fill the Albert Hall. In truth, I suspect that when it comes to persuading people to give up their wasteful ways this kind of statistic is meaningless. What does strike home more profoundly is knowledge of how the destruction and pollution of the environment is inherent in the use of raw materials for a manufacturing process.

The manufacture of paper began over 2000 years ago in the Far East but it did not begin in this country until 1494 when the first paper was milled near Hertford by John Tate.

Paper manufacture using virgin wood pulp is one of the most destructive and polluting manufacturing processes invented by man. Clearly, paper manufacture from virgin wood pulp involves tree felling and, although it is true that trees are replanted, standard logging practices often destroy valuable forest ecosystems and replace them with single species plantations. These species are almost always coniferous which do not support the wide diversity of life found in the original forests. According to the Natural Resources Defence Council half of the world’s forests have now gone, that means not only the trees and smaller plants but also all of the animal species that lived in those forests. Inevitably many species have become, or are close to becoming, extinct.

The production of high quality paper pulp is carried out chemically and although the process uses a closed loop system ensuring that most of the harmful chemicals do not enter the environment the process does use huge amounts of water and gives a relatively low yield of pulp. To produce a lower quality paper pulp for news print a mechanical pulping process is used which requires less water.

The second stage is to whiten the paper pulp which may be done in a variety of ways. Traditionally chlorine has been used in this process which produces toxic by products which escape into the environment, not the least of these is dioxin.

A less environmentally harmful method of whitening is to use hydrogen peroxide but this process requires high energy use. Modern methods are being developed to reduce energy use and the impact of chemical use.

Finally to improve the paper pulp for printing and writing, for wet strength or for absorption more chemicals are needed.

Pollutants will escape into the environment, into the air and as liquid effluent into the waterways, with consequent effects on human health and aquatic ecosystems.

Paper manufacture contributes to green house gases and hence to global warming, it contributes to imported electrical energy consumption, largely produced from the burning of fossil fuels, it contributes gases involved in the formation of acid rain.

Recycling used paper reduces all of these effects.

I have ended with statistics but these figures and facts do tell the story, can we afford to ignore them? Practically all paper products can be made using recycled paper and with modern methods it is difficult to tell recycled paper from ‘new’ paper. Everyone can do a little bit for the planet and for future generations by choosing recycled paper for their next paper purchase.