Until the mid 19th century paper was produced mostly from recycled cotton cloth, linen or hemp fibers. With the increased demands of the Industrial Revolution and widespread desire for more books and writing materials, a cheaper alternative was sought for and found with wood pulp. A financially viable mechanical pulping machine was developed in Germany in the 1840’s and by the turn of the twentieth century various chemical means to pulp wood into paper fibers was developed.

The two processes created varied results both product-wise and in environmental impact. The mechanical pulping process manages to salvage nearly 90% of the wood run through the grinders but would weaken the fibers and make a product that would yellow over time. This method is both energy intensive and makes use of huge amounts of water. While a lower quality paper more fit for newspaper consumption than fine stationery it has the benefit of being whitened with hydrogen peroxide which is non-toxic and breaks down into hydrogen and water.

Chemical pulping on the other hand makes use of several very toxic substances while producing a higher quality sheet. Sulpher acids break down the tree fiber and chlorine, one of the most deadly chemicals on earth, is used to whiten the resulting pulp. With a loss of nearly half the wood put into the process, the rest of the sludge must be disposed of. This type of pulping required vast amounts of water for rinsing the chemicals out of the wood pulp as well. Initially this rinse-water and the sludge were merely dumped into a convenient river but with devastating results of heavily chlorinated waste on the ecosystems. Much of it now is landfilled and more energy, created from the burning of fossil fuels was needed to attempt cleansing the water used.

With paper production using over a third of all harvested wood this is a borderline ecological disaster on many fronts. The destruction of natural habitat by clear cutting thousands of acres of forest a day to feed the mills is not relieved by replanting trees. The standard method is to use fast growing Asian pines that can be reharvested in twenty-year cycles does not fit the ecosystems of most countries nor aid in habitat rehabilitation.

Recycling old paper products does require only about 40% of the energy needed to produce new pulp although this figure has been disputed. For one ton of new newsprint quality paper the electrical energy requirement, not taking the chemical impact into account, requires 2500 kilowatt hours per ton. However 35% of landfill mass is made up of paper and this mass, while it does eventually decay, produces methane which is a major contributor to greenhouse gasses that affect global warming. While incineration of the waste wood does help create energy through heat, it also releases a significant amount of carbon monoxide and dioxide into the air creating even more air contamination.

Even with the benefits of paper recycling, a new source of fiber will need to be developed. Like the internal combustion vehicles run on gasoline, their days are numbered as both are severely debilitating towards continued life on planet Earth.