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I’ve heard that the U.S. has plenty of trees. Why recycle?
There are plenty of trees in the United States. As a result of the forest products industry’s
sustainable forestry practices, there are more
trees in the U.S. today than there were 75 years ago. And because more trees are grown in the U.S. than are
harvested, there will be plenty of trees and forest products for future generations to enjoy.
But we should continue to recover our paper products for recycling. While our forest resources are
abundant, adding recycled fiber to new wood fiber is a good way to stretch our forest resources.
Recycling also helps control waste disposal problems. For every ton of paper recovered for recycling,
about 3 cubic yards of landfill space are saved. And in many cases, recovering paper for recycling
can save communities money that they would otherwise have to spend for disposal.
In 1999, about 45 percent of the paper used in the U.S. was diverted from the waste stream to be
recycled into new paper products. Today, recovered paper supplies over 38 percent of the total fiber
needed to produce our country’s paper products.
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