Fascinating facts about paper
Paper, like many other inventions we take for granted, originally came from ancient China. The first sheet was made from rag fibres in 105 AD by Ts'ai Lun, a member of the Eastern Han Court of the Emperor Ho Ti. Paper got a big welcome from Chinese kite makers, who had previously used wood.
In more modern times, the computer was supposed to signal the end of paper's long reign, but it hasn't - over the last two decades, the world's consumption of paper has more than doubled. Paper makes up nearly a third of household waste, by weight. In Rotherham we recycled about 3,600 tonnes of it last year. That's equivalent to something like 10 million magazines - a stack more than 20 miles high.
Amazingly, this is still only about a tenth of the waste paper we collected. Not all of it can be recycled economically, but we could certainly recycle a lot more, with your help.
Recycling paper
Waste paper was one of the first household waste materials to be recycled on a large scale, and is relatively easy to process and re-use.
Waste paper of the right kind can be reprocessed to produce new paper. There are potentially huge advantages both for our local communities and for the global environment. By recycling more of our waste paper we will:
- use less new timber
- save energy
- save water
- reduce landfill
Why recycle paper?
Waste paper can be used on its own or mixed with new fibres to make many different kinds of paper, from high-quality printing paper to low-cost tissues and toilet rolls. There are at least four very good reasons for doing so:
Recycling paper saves timber because wood pulp is by far the most commonly-used source of cellulose fibres for making paper. It takes 24 trees to make a tonne of paper. (About 5% is made from other fibre sources such as rags, cotton, grasses and sugar cane.)
Recycling paper saves energy because producing recycled paper takes 30% to 70% less energy than starting from wood pulp.
Recycling paper saves water because paper-making requires large quantities of water - more than any other manufactured product, tonne for tonne - but the recycling process uses less.
Recycling paper reduces landfill because waste paper is one of the largest component of household waste, and at the moment nine-tenths of it goes to landfill sites.
Rotherham Council is committed to increasing the amount of household waste we recycle. Please use your Blue Box and Blue Bags to the full.
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