Did You Know?
Topic of the Week – Paper
- To start with, around 100 B.C., the Chinese invented paper from hemp. They later began to use tree bark, bamboo, and other plant fibers to create paper.
- We derived the English word “paper” from the Egyptian word “papyrus”.
- Each ton of recycled paper can avoid the use of 17 trees and 26,500 liters of water.
- The US consumes more than 30% of all paper products globally, despite being only 5% of the world’s population.
- Americans use more than 90 million short tons of paper and paperboard every year.
- Chinese were the first nation in the world who started producing paper by hand. This happened almost 2000 years ago.
- The oldest surviving trace of papyrus comes from 3000 BC Egypt.
- Watermarks on paper were first used in 13th century Italy.
- Paper came to Europe via Arab traders who learned its secrets from the Chinese.
- The machine that extracts and prepares tree fibers for papermaking is called Hollander.
- Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees!
- The largest producers of paper by quantity in the world are the US and Canada. After them come Finland, Japan, and Sweden.
- The largest producer of paper by volume is not America, but China. As of 2011, they have a 24.9% market share of paper production, with the US having 18.8%.
- In 1999 average American came in contact with approximately 354 kg of paper.
- City of Phoenix, USA, manages to collect around 100 thousand tons of recycled material per year, and 75% of it is paper.
- Toilet paper started being produced in late 9th century China.
- The use of paper is growing with each passing year.
- The oldest European document written on paper comes from 1109. It was a deed of Sicilian king King Roger II written in Greek and Arabic.
- 42% of the industrial wood industry is dedicated to paper production.
- 37% of US paper pulp comes from recycled paper.
- Paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
- In the last 200 years, 50% of Earth’s forests were cleared or burned.
- Every day Americans buy around 62 million newspapers and throw out around 44 million of them.
- During its lifetime, one American citizen uses 465 trees for their paper needs.
- Around 73% of every landfill is paper and cardboard boxes.
- The first American paper mill was established in 1690.
- The first book that was printed from an industrially made paper was produced in 1804.