Is recycling paper environmentally sound? I think not: 29 per cent of all recycled paper in North America is currenty sold to–you guessed it–China. Coal burning container ships carry over nine million tonnes of recovered paper fibres across the ocean to China. Chinese plants use mostly coal to provide the energy to make paper, as opposed to cleaner hydro here in Canada. After China has produced the paper, it is increasingly selling the newsprint back to North American companies, again shipping it across the ocean using coal burning container ships.

So, to recycle our paper, we burn fossil fuels collecting the old paper at your door. Then we burn fossil fuels shipping it to the collecton station. There we use hydro/coal power and chemicals turning it into paper fibres. Then we ship it to China with ships burning fossil fuels. There they make newsprint out of our old paper by powering their process by burning coal, a fossil fuel. Then they ship back the newsprint to us by ships burning fossil fuels.

And why do we do it? For the environment? Using recycled paper doesn’t save trees! Trees used for the paper industry are specifically grown for that purpose. And every time one tree is cut down, at least another one is planted. The net loss is zero. The gas burned by cutting trees, transporting them, and cutting them up is basically equal to the amount of energy required to collect the old recyclables. You only need half the amount of chemicals to produce new paper as opposed to trying to bleach out old ink in recyclables. And best of all, nothing needs to be shipped to China in the new paper process: it is all done here in Canada. It is trained across the country as opposed to shipped across the globe.

Using new paper is better for the environment than recycling old paper. It’s a matter of fact.

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