Paper and Prejudice

This paper aims to inform consumers about the products they may currently be buying. Hopefully with enough demand from consumers industries will supply safer and more sustainable products.
Until the 1850s, paper was a rare and costly product. Consequently, manufacturers designed these products to be durable. Subsequent research revealed the cost-effectiveness of producing paper from trees. Consequently, the world adapted to paper’s versatility, which led to paper innovations. A few paper creations resulted in single-use paper products. Currently, these products account for nearly half of all paper produced, and most are quickly sent to landfills (Wikipedia History). Not surprisingly, there has been a growing concern about the environmental harm that traditional paper causes.
🏛Problems With Traditional Paper💰
Traditional wood contains 23-40% lignin. Removing this lignin makes the pulping process energy-intensive (Dan Gavrilescu et al). Additionally, technology used to create paper also produces air pollutants. These pollutants include: VOCs, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, acetone, and methanol (James Owens). Consequently, technologies have been developed to reduce these emissions. However, many governments still subsidize the traditional way of making paper, making it difficult for environmentally friendly manufacturers to compete in the short run. Consequently, the above-mentioned toxins are being released at an alarming rate. Furthermore, bleaching enhances the whiteness of the paper. Although some manufacturers sometimes opt for oxygen as a chlorine substitute (Dan Gavrilescu et al).
🧻 High Grade Toilet Paper 🌲
For lower-grade products such as napkins and packaging, 100% recycled paper is a viable option. Bleaching is unnecessary for these products. Producing goods from recycled materials requires less energy and preserves forests in the process. Only a small percentage of high-grade office paper utilizes 100% recycled material. Most high-grade office papers have some recycled components, but the rest is still made from forests. Most high-quality toilet paper comes from Canadian virgin forests (Janet Abramovitz and Ashley Matton) .
Recycling is not the sole solution to this problem. Lignin removal is the most energy-intensive part of making paper. Accordingly, it would seem logical to use a plant that has less lignin. Non-wood products contain less lignin. Farmers burn their non-wood by-products that might be usable as paper feedstocks. This practice adds to unnecessary air pollution. Repurposing these by-products could yield paper. For instance, corn and sugar cane contain 9-15% lignin, so they create more environmentally friendly paper (E.E.Alagbe a Alixander Perzon et al). Using these materials could add to the farmers’ bottom line. Currently, some high-grade sugar cane multi-use paper is sold in both office supply and grocery stores.
🤑Advantages of Using Hemp As Paper📄
One non-wood plant contains 3% lignin, does not require herbicides (for more information about environmental effects of herbicides, read the War of the Weeds), and does not require bleaching. That plant is hemp. Hemp has the potential to produce cheap high quality office and toilet paper (Hayo van Der Wef). Currently, only a few stores sell these products. This is most likely because hemp has a fiscal competitive disadvantage. So it ends up costing more than the environmentally unfriendly paper.
Here are some factors that make hemp products cost more. One: Hemp farmers receive fewer subsidies than the timber industry. Two: currently, it requires more manual effort than harvesting trees. Three: There are a number of fungal infections and insect pests that can damage the plants (John Finman and David Styles). Consumer demand is key to overcoming these obstacles. Manufacturers that figure out solutions to these problems could add to their bottom line and attract more consumers. Hopefully, state and local governments will sense the shifting sentiments of the voters and support funding for research and development of hemp products.
📝Buying Eco-Friendly Paper Protects The Planet🌏
For over a century, paper has been a cheap product widely used in Western and some Eastern cultures. The environmental toll includes poisoned water and air, and as much as 40% of the waste in landfills. Using toilet paper made from virgin wood pulp contributes to deforestation and habitat loss in ecosystems like the Canadian Boreal forest. There is a more sustainable approach to paper production. As a society, we can buy office paper created from agricultural byproducts such as sugar and corn. These practices would spare the world’s forests. Hopefully, this change in consumer habits will change the political will from subsidizing the traditional paper industry to supporting research and development of non-wood products.
March 12, 2025 @ 7:12 pm
Thank you for this outstanding article and cited research! And thank you to Let’s Talk Hemp for distributing the link in its recent newsletter so I could discover both the article and your fuller body of purpose-driven work. May hemp paper become the norm in short order!