NEWSPAPER
Did you know that paper was invented in China around 105 A.D. by T'sai Lung, a scribe in the emperor's court? Since then, the world has made great use of this material especially for newspaper.

*To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.

*Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.

*If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!

*If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

*During World War II when raw materials were scarce, 33% of all paper was recycled. After the war, this number decreased sharply.

*If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!!

*The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!

*The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.

*When you smell a dump, what you're actually smelling is the paper in the dump!

*Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.

*Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.

*The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.

* In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.

* In 1993, nearly 36,000,000 tons of paper were recovered in the U.S.--twice as much in 1980.

* 27% of the newspapers produced in America are recycled.

* Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!  **

* The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

* The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.

Recycled Paper is Made Into:

• Writing tablets
• Cellulose insulation!
• Photocopy paper
• Letterhead paper
• Newspaper
• Bags
• Gift wrap
• Paper towels and toilet paper

(Information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

** Based on the information above, in 2006 the Upper Arkansas Recycling program saved over 10,500 trees; 236,500 gallons of oil; 4,356,900 gallons of water; 1,867 cubic yards in landfill space; and 2,987,616 kilowatts of energy!