Why Use Handmade Paper

Did you know that, on an average, a person uses more than 750 pounds of paper each year, which is equivalent of nine big trees. More than half of the wood used by us goes into various paper products that we use, these includes boxes, napkins, disposable dishes, gift wraps etc. Very rarely do these products contain recycled fibre and most of them are made of freshly cut trees. Each year, many of the world's biologically-rich forests are disappearing at an alarming rate and the cause is the expansion of industrial tree plantations, which supply pulp to meet worldwide demand for paper products.

With demand for paper expected to double in the coming years and the attendant impact on the world's forests, there existed an ongoing search for alternative sources of paper pulp, until now, that we have discovered and started using other sources of fibre. Luckily, we do not require to utilise trees in order to satisfy our paper needs, and have an option of fabricating excellent paper by recycling and using other waste material such as cotton, jute, hemp, weed grasses or straw.

According to a study there exists 180 million tons of agricultural waste produced every year and 40 million tons of paper sold in a typical year. We have the option of using this 40 million tons of waste more efficiently rather than taking up more space on earth, and that is by making handmade paper and paper products out of it.

Some paper facts which are unknown to a layman are that it consumes 60 percent less energy to manufacture paper from recycled stock than from virgin materials, production of a ton of normal paper needs 20 trees and 7,000 more gallons of water than a ton of 100% recycled paper. Moreover, chemicals like chlorine are used in the bleaching process of these papers that releases chemical dioxin and other toxins, which pollutes our air, soil and water. Sometimes 1,000-year old trees are sliced up and shredded into chips, shipped across the entire world, only to be chemically pulverized, bleached, and flattened to satiate the world's ever-increasing appetite for paper products.

Hence, the fact that, "Handmade paper is an affordable environmentally friendly alternative to virgin, chlorine-bleached paper and by making paper from a variety of natural materials and recycling what we make, we can preserve our forests" is worth a second thought.