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17 trees to make one ton of pulp
• The need to recycle grows every day
BY RICARDO BRUNO
OJEDA —Special for Granma International—
RECYCLING paper saves entire forests, given that 17
trees, each one of which could take 20 years to
grow, have to be felled in order to produce one ton
of pulp. Moreover it does not contaminate the
environment and saves energy.
The
word “papyrus,” in Latin alludes to the Egyptian
plant Cyperus papirus, of the Ciperáceas family,
whose leaves were written on by Egyptians, Greeks,
and Romans between 3000 B.C. and 400 A.D.
In
the year 105 A.D. T’sai Lun, an employee of the
Chinese emperor Ho Ti, made paper for the first time
using a vegetal paste based on fibers of bamboo
cane, mulberry and other plants, giving origin to
the paper we know today.
For
500 years the technique of paper making was only
known to the Chinese, who jealously guarded it
during this long period.
Paper products are a daily part of most human
environments providing functionality, convenience,
order, hygiene, and protection.
Cardboard packing boxes; trays for transporting
fragile articles such as eggs and fruit; school
supplies such as notebooks and agendas, and office
paper are all part of an interminable list
demonstrating the importance of each one of these
articles of habitual use.
In
the fabrication of newspapers, magazines, office
paper, print copies, etc. paper used by consumers is
exclusively employed, whose sole destination is to
be incinerated in dumps.
The
distinctive characteristic of 100%-recycled and
ecological paper is its natural white color,
guaranteed by a cleaning process in its manufacture
that does not use toxic whitening chemicals.
Recycled paper was conceived of in the 1960’s by
diverse ecological groups, but its use was
insignificant. It wasn’t until the 80’s and 90’s
that it began to gain in importance.
The
principal of recycling is fundamentally based on
making the most of the resources we have available
and in recycling all waste that we generate.
Looking at the waste dumps that we currently have
one could easily come to the conclusion that
something is failing. It makes no sense to cut down
millions of trees to make paper and afterward just
throw it in the trash instead of using it to make
new paper.
Progress and the thirst for culture have made paper
into a vehicle of communication par excellence,
which has caused a spectacular increase in its
consumption, and likewise, the clearing of entire
forests to support this demand.
But
this increase in consumption has at the same time
brought another problem: the generation of new waste
that contaminates the environment.
Part
of these problems of deforestation and environmental
contamination could be solved by using recycled
paper made under strict regulations that prohibit
the use of aggressive chemical agents, especially
chlorine, in its processing.
Recycling is the only way to free us from waste by
making use of it. When we understand that it is not
trash that we are throwing out, but instead entire
forests, then we have grasped the ecological
significance of paper consumption.
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