The Effect of Papermaking process on Climate Change
INTRODUCTION
Paper is very important and essential for daily activities. Paper is used for many purposes and in many fields such as printing, banking, transportation, education, building, medical, entertainment and communications. In addition, the products that made by paper are also various from toilet paper, newspaper, brochure, menu card, envelope, cardboard, wallpaper, book, passport to money. So, there are 400 million tons of paper was consumed last year, 2010 (World Wildlife Fund, n.d). With a huge consumption, forests are more and more deforested as well as exploited by logging companies. That activity indirectly impacts on the environment and causes many natural disasters such as flood, greenhouse effect and global warming. This essay will present a general view about the pulp and paper industry, clarify the threats, the effects of papermaking process on the environment and give out the solutions for reducing greenhouse gas.
FINDINGS
Firstly, I will discuss about the overview of pulp and paper industry and paper consumption worldwide. United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Australasia, and Latin America are the countries that mainly ruled the pulp and paper industry (Paper Industry, n.d). The top companies in term of pulp and paper market, based on the net sales, are: International Paper, Georgia-Pacific Corp., Weyerhaeuser, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Procter & Gamble Co (Paper Industry, n.d). All of them are United State corporations thus United States is also the nation that has the largest paper consumption (Paper Industry, n.d).
According to the World Wildlife Fund (n.d), every day there is more than 1 million tons of paper consumed. The consumption of paper is rapidly increasing, especially in developing economies such as China (WWF, n.d). In term of packaging, it occupied 50% production of paper and board worldwide, the largest market, printing and writing are the next...