History of Paper

The history of paper dates back almost 2,000 years to when inventors in China first crafted cloth sheets to record their drawings and writings. Before then, people communicated through pictures and symbols etched on stone, bones, cave walls or clay tablets.

Paper as we know it today was first made in Lei-Yang, China. About 300 years later, during the 8th century, Muslims (from the region that is now Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq) learned the Chinese secret of paper making when they captured a Chinese paper mill. Later, when the Muslims invaded Europe, they brought this secret with them. The first paper mill was built in Spain, and soon, paper was being made at mills all across Europe. Over the next 800 years, paper was used for printing important books, bibles and legal documents. England began making large supplies of paper in the late 15th century and supplied the colonies with paper for many years. Finally, in 1690, the first U.S. paper mill was built in Pennsylvania.

At first, American paper mills used the Chinese method of shredding old rags and clothes into individual fibers to make paper. As the demand for paper grew, the mills changed to using the fiber from trees instead (wood was less expensive and more abundant than cloth). Today, most of the trees that are used to make paper are grown on working forests and harvested like a crop specifically for making paper.

Paper mills also use recycled paper, wood chips, and sawdust left over from lumber operations (whose products are used to make houses, furniture and other things) to make new paper. Today, much of the paper we use is made with fiber from recycled paper. Recycling has always been a part of papermaking. When you recycle your used paper, paper mills will use it to make new newspaper, notebook paper, paper grocery bags, corrugated boxes, envelopes, magazines, and cartons.

New Uses for Used Paper
Recycled paper is also used to make things you many not have thought of, such as animal bedding, compost, kitty litter, and insulation. Many of the things your family orders from the Internet are also packaged in (and protected during shipping by) recycled paper products. Environmentally friendly paper "e-cubes" cushion items during shipping, and can be recycled afterward. The corrugated boxes they come in can also be recycled. In fact, more than 70% of all corrugated boxes are recycled.

For more information on the History of Paper, visit The Paper Industry International Hall of Fame.