discarded paper and paperboard make up roughly 26% of solid municipal solid waste in landfill sites
In the United States the pulp and paper industry released about 79, 000 tonnes or about 5% of all industrial pollutant releases in 2015...
Worldwide, the pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of all the world's energy use.
Wastewater discharges for a pulp and paper mill contains solids, nutrients and dissolved organic matter such as lignin. It also contains alcohols, and chelating agents and inorganic materials like chlorates and transition metal compounds. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus can cause or exacerbate eutrophication of fresh water bodies such as lakes and rivers. Organic matter dissolved in fresh water, measured by biological oxygen demand (BOD), changes ecological characteristics. Wastewater may also be polluted with organochlorine compounds. Some of these are naturally occurring in the wood, but chlorine bleaching of the pulp produces far larger amounts.
The pulp and paper industry is also associated with important emissions of heavy metals. In Canada, for example, this industry is the third source of lead (Pb) emissions to water[27] In the U.S., the pulp and paper industry is responsible for 9% of industrial releases to water.
and so on...
Even if the 1% number were fair/complete, combating climate change is likely going to involve a lot of small cuts rather than one or two big ones. Avoiding printing stuff we don't need to print is worthwhile.
You're right that it's about more than just carbon, and looking at it purely from a carbon footprint might be the wrong perspective. I was considering climate change to be the most urgent of our environmental issues and in terms of impact to climate change paper production is insignificant.
That being said, an individual reducing their consumption of paper based products is arguably the least impactful action we can take as a society.
Instead we should be focusing on the packaging industry's use of onetime use packaging for products, particularly those that are difficult or impossible to recycle (e.g. milk cartons, juice boxes, etc). This is not only a huge contributor to paper pollution but also micro-plastics pollution and landfill waste in general.
Greater Container-deposit legislation on more products (e.g. plastic bottles) and on limited use but highly recyclable paper goods (e.g. newspapers and magazines) would greatly increase the amount of recycling we do as well.
Comments
1% or less of your carbon footprint is from your consumption of paper products.
https://twosidesna.org/US/our-carbon-footprint-how-do-paper-...
There's more to pollution than just carbon, and that's an industry advocacy group's website.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper
and so on...
Even if the 1% number were fair/complete, combating climate change is likely going to involve a lot of small cuts rather than one or two big ones. Avoiding printing stuff we don't need to print is worthwhile.
You're right that it's about more than just carbon, and looking at it purely from a carbon footprint might be the wrong perspective. I was considering climate change to be the most urgent of our environmental issues and in terms of impact to climate change paper production is insignificant.
That being said, an individual reducing their consumption of paper based products is arguably the least impactful action we can take as a society.
Instead we should be focusing on the packaging industry's use of onetime use packaging for products, particularly those that are difficult or impossible to recycle (e.g. milk cartons, juice boxes, etc). This is not only a huge contributor to paper pollution but also micro-plastics pollution and landfill waste in general.
Greater Container-deposit legislation on more products (e.g. plastic bottles) and on limited use but highly recyclable paper goods (e.g. newspapers and magazines) would greatly increase the amount of recycling we do as well.