Paper Manufacturing

U.S.

• Each year, paper is used to publish more than two million books, 350 million magazines, and 245 billion newspapers in the United States.
• Americans use more than 90 million short tons of paper and paperboard each year.
• The U.S. paper industry has reduced its air pollution emissions by removing 97% of particulate matter generated during manufacturing.  Sulphur compounds emissions  the chief cause of nuisance odor in mill communities  have been reduced by 90% since 1968.
• It takes far less water to make paper today than it once did - 70% less than that used in 1959.
• Under EPA's voluntary pollution prevention program called "33/50" forest industry met the goal of 50% reduction in the use of 17 chemicals by 1993  two years ahead of EPA's timetable.
• From 1988  1993, forest industry spent about $1 billion each year on environmental improvements  almost 20% of its total capital available for investment.
• Since 1988, forest industry has reduced dioxin from pulp bleaching by 94%.
• Forest industry's environmental research expenditures totaled almost $290 billion in the decade 1984  1994.
• Today, forest industry selfgenerates 57% of its total energy needs, up from 36% in 1972.  Over the past two decades the amount of fossil fuel required to produce a ton of paper has been reduced by 38%.
• Since 1979, forest industry's dependence on landfills and lagoons for disposal of manufacturing wastes has decreased by 16%, thanks to technology changes that allows the burning of waste and provides additional energy.

• Thirteen pulp/paper mills in Georgia process solid wood and/or wood chips into pulp or into pulp and paper.
• Twelve other Georgia mills produce paper and/or paper products from recycled paper and/or preprocessed pulp.
• To make one ton of bleached kraft pulp requires approximately 1 ³/₄ cords of pine pulpwood.
• Most Georgia pulpmills are using hardwood as well as softwood pulpwood as their raw material.  Some mills use as little as 10% hardwood, and others as much as 50% hardwood.
• In 1995, Georgia solid-wood processing pulp/paper mills had the capacity to produce over 20,000 tons of pulp per day. That equates to approximately 35,000 cords, or about 192 million pounds of pulpwood per day , or 8 ³/₄ million cord equivalents pulpwood per year.
• Georgia timberlands produced approximately 7 million cords of softwood and hardwood roundwood pulpwood in 1994.  In addition, approximately 2 ³/₄ million cord equivalents of wood residues for pulp manufacture were also produced in 1994