Paper Facts

• Paper is all around us…
  • Writing paper
  • Tissue
  • Paper bags
  • Cardboard boxes
  • Airplane tickets
  • Milk cartons
  • Masking tape
  • Car filters
  • Tea bags
  • Camera film
  • The list goes on and on…
• Every day, U.S. papermakers recycle enough paper to fill a 15 mile long train of boxcars.
• For hundreds of years, cotton and linen rags were the papermaker's raw materials.
• We use kraft paper every day when we ask supermarkets to pack our groceries in brown paper bags.
• Approximately 1.5 million tons of construction products are made each year of paper, including insulation, gypsum wallboard, roofing paper, flooring, padding and sound-absorbing materials.
• Top 10 consumers in 2001 of paper and paperboard per person in pounds are:
  • Belgium
  • United States of America
  • Finland
  • Sweden
  • Netherlands
  • Denmark
  • Luxembourg
  • Japan
  • Switzerland
  • Canada
• Paper was invented by the Chinese around 105 A.D. and was kept a secret for many years.
• The first paper merchant in America was Benjamin Franklin, who helped to start 18 paper mills in Virginia and surrounding areas.
• During the American Revolution, paper was so hard to find that soldiers ripped pages from books to use them as wadding for their rifles.
• There is a Paper Industry Hall of Fame, where great leaders, past and present, of the paper industry are inducted each year.
• Bags were first measured by how many pounds of sugar they held. (i.e., a 1 lb. bag was named that because it held 1 lb of sugar, a 2 lb bag because it held 2 lbs. of sugar, etc.)