Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Story of Paper

Do you know that technology nowadays can recycle paper without producing massive amount of contaminants?

Let’s learn about ways we can help protecting the Earth.



 
This is an international symbol that represents the action of Recycle.

When this symbol is found on the packages of paper, it means that they are able to be recycled.
Unused paper is collected to be part of the mixture in paper production. Some recycled paper contained 50% of unused paper, but they may vary according to the quality.
This is a label that says ‘Totally Chlorine Free’.

Chlorine is a chemical used in the production of paper as the function to bleach paper. This is way most of the paper we use are white. However, Chlorine is a chemical that will affect the environment. 

Therefore, recycled paper will usually be produced without Chlorine. This is also the reason why most recycled paper isn’t white in colour.
This is a label of ‘Forest Stewardship Council’.

When we see this label, it simply means that the paper produced is monitored by the International Forest Stewardship Council. Making papers would require cutting down of trees, but this would lead to deforestation. 

Therefore, we have to carry out replantation after cutting down the trees for the production of paper. All these actions has to be monitored and approved by the council to ensure the quality of both the paper and the environment.
This is a symbol that means ‘Fibre From Sustainable Forestry’.

As mentioned earlier, replantation is a very important part in paper production industry. If this step was never carried out, we could have lost thousands, millions, and even billions of trees! This is the symbol that marks that the paper is made from trees taken from a continuous replantation land.
Shared by,
NS 5C2 Alison Ho.

Translated by,
Happy.



Postscript:

How would you usually treat unwanted paper? Throwing them into the trash can I suppose? Have you ever think twice before throwing the paper?

As Nichiren Daishonin teaches ‘The Buddha says that life is something that cannot be purchased even for the price of an entire major world system’. This shows the importance of one’s life which happens to be unable to be exchanged once it’s gone. However, this does not mean that we should only care for our own selfishly. On the other hand, we should start caring about others and our environment as well.

Paper, is just the same with us, having a life cycle. As trees were cut down for the production of paper, they enter a different stage of their life cycle. When they’re used, unused, and became unwanted, we would usually dump them into the rubbish bin. Nevertheless, have you ever wonder the value of their life until this point? If we could get them to be recycled, to be able to be reused, their value of life is very much appreciated rather than having their lives to end in a pile of rubbish.

Protecting and helping Mother Earth is not something far away from us. When something has come to the end of its life, think again for it might still possess enormous value. From today onwards, let’s think twice before throwing the paper. One little action could change the world!

Shared by,
Happy.

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Written at 1:16 AM by Paper Pilot.