Tissues, cereal boxes, newspapers, and cardboard boxes. What do these random items have in common? The fact is, they’re all made from some form of paper. Paper is used so often, we take it for granted. Books, notebooks, signs – all would be impossible without paper. But the facts show that paper has a surprisingly bloody history…
Paper’s History – War, War, War
Paper was invented in China around 105 A.D. by Ts’ai Lun, an official in the Chinese Court. Most likely, Ts’ai mashed together mulberry bark, hemp, rags, and water, until he had a pulp, at which point he pressed out the liquid, and set his new, thin mat (paper!) in the sun to dry.
This secret of paper was protected by the Chinese up until the 8th century, when Muslims captured a Chinese paper mill. Then, when the Muslims invaded Europe, knowledge of paper spread.
In the fifteenth century, England was supplying paper to the American colonies, something the British extorted when it came to taxes. In 1765, the British Stamp Tax required colonists to only use imported paper (you could tell because it was specially stamped). Americans, who had already created their own presses in 1690, weren’t too thrilled about this. Consequently, in 1766, a shipment of stamped paper was subjected to a mock trial, found guilty, hanged from a “tree of liberty” and then “burned to death”. Perhaps that’s one reason why, during the American Revolution, paper was so hard to find that soldiers had to rip pages from books to use as rifle wadding.
Paper Today – Peace by Piece
Though paper’s past has been surprisingly violent, paper today (95% of paper is made from wood cellulose) is mostly harmless.
Some might worry that paper made from trees and wood is damaging the environment. However, “America’s forest and paper companies are committed to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)SM program, which balances the need for forest products with the need to protect and conserve our environment” (source). Consequently, the U.S. ensures that more trees are growing (whether by natural processes, or replanting) than are harvested each year. With today’s technologies, almost 100% of a tree is used after it has been cut down.
This doesn’t discredit the importance of recycling. America’s forest & paper companies are committed to recovering 50% of all the paper Americans use. Though Americans are good at recycling up to 70% of U.S. newspapers, and 75% of all corrugated boxes, we’re still far from that overall 50% mark for all paper products.
So next time you finish a box of cereal, or discard those old papers, instead of throwing them out, recycle, and help sustain our peaceful environment.
