![]() One scenario continues current trends in things like energy mix and landfill management, while the other two represent more aggressive efforts to clean up electric grids and reduce emissions. They then feed this into three scenarios applied to each step of the paper life cycle. The researchers start by projecting growing global paper demand, driven especially by less-wealthy nations increasing their use of packaging. Namely, they calculate whether increasing paper recycling would make it easier or harder to hit emissions targets that would halt global warming at 2☌. So if your recycling process generates CO 2 as it makes new paper, recycling could end up increasing emissions.Ī new study led by Stijn van Ewijk at Yale University tries to do the math on this, using practical scenarios for the next few decades. Burning it for heat and electricity to run the mill is approximately carbon neutral, since the carbon you emit into the air started out in the air (before a temporary stint as tree stuff). Processing pulp to make paper is typically powered by “ black liquor”-a byproduct organic sludge with some useful properties. That’s a more interesting question than it may seem, namely because of the way paper products are made. So how does paper recycling stack up in this regard? ![]() (And perhaps its aging office cousin: “ Consider a tree before you print this email.”) There are many ways to evaluate the environmental benefits of such actions, and one of those is greenhouse gas emissions. John Lambert Pearson / Flickr reader comments 87įor many people, the most familiar way to “go green” or “be eco-friendly” is probably paper recycling.
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