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Given that paper mills are typically located near forests and far from sources of wastepaper, what about the energy needed to transport recovered paper to mills?

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Given that paper mills are typically located near forests and far from sources of wastepaper, what about the energy needed to transport recovered paper to mills?

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Lifecycle analysis shows that even after the energy used to collect, transport, and process used paper is accounted for, the recycled paper system uses much less total energy than the virgin paper system. This is because the energy needed to recover used paper and get it back to the mill is quite small relative to the energy saved by using recovered paper rather than trees to manufacture new paper. Don’t forget that making virgin paper also requires energy to cut, collect and transport trees to the mill, all of it fossil fuel-derived. And while the distances are shorter, the magnitude is greater – between 2.2 and 4.4 tons of wood are cut and transported for every ton of virgin pulp, versus 1.4 tons of waste paper for a ton of recycled pulp. Thus, the energy required to obtain and process trees (for virgin paper) and used paper (for recycled paper) is quite comparable. The Paper Calculator accounts for much of the transportation throughout the life cycle of a paper product. This include

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