Conscious Choice: The Wisdom of Going Tree-Free

December 1999

The Wisdom of Going Tree-Free

Injecting sustainability into our paper-trail (habit)

by Ana Arias Terry

A familiar beeping sound, followed by a blinking light, warns me. The printer is out of paper. Now what? Do I zip into the city for an emergency ream of paper that is made of tree remains and is low in post-consumer waste because that’s all local stores carry? Or do I zap an order online straight to a tree-free paper supplier which is a hundred times better for the environment but which will take several days to arrive and cost me more?

Fact Pack

A wise policy of less paper consumption is not a bad goal to try and achieve. Recycling helps too, but it’s not enough. In fact, recycling paper has alarming limitations and impacts.

When paper is recycled, a separation of fibers and the other materials takes place. The byproduct of this separation is a soupy mixture including toxic remains such as heavy metals, pigments, and other substances from adhesives and inks. Imagine the disposal dilemma when we consider that one hundred tons of recycled paper produce forty tons of toxic soup.

Patricia O’Brien, owner of Eco’Fields, a Chicago retail store specializing in agriculturally-based environmental paper and other products, is a strong advocate of alternative options, particularly hemp. For O’Brien, the advantages of tree fiber-based products are an illusion. "It’s fool’s gold," she says. "Tree fiber requires lots of chemicals because it’s tough and has a short root; the chemicals eat the fiber. So now you have less available fiber and more PCBs."

Today we still use and waste too much paper. According to the Sierra Club, the average person in this country consumes more than seven hundred pounds of paper in a year. Guess how many greetings cards we purchase annually? More than seven billion, says the Greeting Card Association.

Our rate of consumption of paper and wood products threatens forests, animal and plant habitats, and the balance of our planet’s global climate. Fortunately, we can make inroads into a sustainable path by demanding and supporting wood pulp alternatives. Al Wong, in a paper presented to the Recycling Council of Alberta Conference in 1998, proposed that in addition to reinforcing and acting on the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), we should add a fourth one: R for replacing virgin wood with other fibers.

The old cliché about looking at the past to understand the present (and hopefully map out a better course of action for the future) is relevant to this issue.

Lessons from the Past

It seems that for eons we’ve been pushing around paper made from trees. But that’s not quite reality. While paper itself has been swapped by humans for more than two thousand years, fiber sources came from textile rags, mostly from crops such as hemp, flax, and cotton. Drafts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the very first Gutenberg bible were printed on paper made from hemp, which represented a valuable cash crop for farmers in the U.S. for more than two hundred years.

Then with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and development of speedier printing machines, paper demands began to exceed the supply of rag available for paper. Manufacturers began to rely exclusively on the predictable supply of wood pulp, jeopardizing the market for well-established hemp and flax fibers.

Such was the catalyst that prompted industries and inventors to create new methods that could take advantage of the most plentiful and "cost-free" natural fiber source — forests. It was the 1860s, a time of forested horizons, when trees in the U.S. were first chopped down to make paper. Today, those forests are in jeopardy, and so are the plants and animals who depend on them. Trees may not be the best option anymore.

The Tree-Free Way

Plenty of good alternatives to tree fiber exist, such as fibers from agricultural plants, from cropping residues, and from textile industry scraps. Such materials are sustainable, easily renewable, and capable of making strong, useful paper. The better choices are ones that promote a lessened reliance on chemicals and pesticides. Some products even offer organic content. This is particularly important with cotton, which is typically doused heavily with pesticides and other chemicals.

Here’s a partial listing of the types of tree-free fibers from which paper products are being made:

Industrial hemp: A hearty plant, it grows quickly (six to sixteen feet in seven to eleven days), provides high yields, flourishes on organic fertilizers, needs little irrigation, and has a long tap root capable of reaching water tables. It improves soil quality, works well as a rotation crop amongst clover, alfalfa, corn, and wheat. Bugs don’t seem very interested in this weed, and when compared to corn and flax, pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide doses are either light or not applied. Industrial hemp paper is made with fewer chemical fillers and bleaching agents than tree paper. And while tree-based paper can be recycled up to three times, hemp transforms up to eight times.

For those who fear that industrial hemp legalization in the States would lead to a proliferation of marijuana use and growth, worry not. According to Suzanne Cheavens and Marta Zmoira in "Hemp is Too Good to be True. Let it Grow," (Mountainfreak, Summer 1999) "The primary difference [in industrial hemp] is the low content of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in industrial hemp (Cannibis sativa L.). Smoke all the hemp you want, but you’ll get nothing but a headache." THC is the active ingredient in marijuana that gets a person high.

Hemp and marijuana crops also are readily distinguished by sight. Marijuana needs to be planted with plenty of room to spare — a maximum of two plants per square meter — so as to turbocharge the potency of the flowering ends. Hemp is planted especially densely so the stalks grow straight up, inhibiting branching and leaf growth. In any case industrial hemp is harvested five to six weeks prior to flowering. That’s virtual castration to the pot aficionado. And if that weren’t enough, Cheavens and Zmoira add, "industrial hemp being grown for seed will suppress the THC production of any marihuana crops within a ten-mile radius; no pot grower worth his weight in baggies would attempt to disguise his crop with that of a legitimate hemp grower."

Farmers trying to make ends meet and in desperate need of crop diversification would find a friend in hemp production. Unfortunately, the U.S. farmer is forbidden from growing hemp in his soil, with few exceptions (As of mid April, North Dakota had the distinction of being the first state since World War II to allow industrial hemp cultivation. Other states have legislation pending on its legalization status).

Kenaf: A relative to okra and cotton and grown in southern states, kenaf also grows quickly to about twelve to fifteen feet and provides good pulp material. In addition to being easily renewable, it develops a thick canopy which acts as a deterrent to competing plants, thus reducing herbicide application needs.

Flax: This crop is readily available, inexpensive, used for products such as airmail stationery, and represents one of the original crops grown specifically for fiber.

Straw: Paper made of leftover rice, corn, and wheat field stems and stalks is usually inexpensive to produce and allows farmers an extra little bump in revenue.

Sugar Cane: Bagasse is the pressed outer stalk component of sugar cane, and it offers a good tree-free fiber. It’s used in making tissues, paper towels, and printing and writing paper.

Banana: Pinzote or banana stalk — neither a permanent component of a banana tree nor part of the fruit — is often dumped into rivers and landfills after the banana harvest. When it oxidizes, it causes ecological damage to the area. In Costa Rica alone, 230,000 tons of pinzote were dumped until a company partnered with the agricultural industry and an environmental school. Depending on the source, some banana fiber paper is actually used as the secondary fiber source, with post-consumer (probably tree-based) paper as the primary ingredient. Be sure to ask the supplier about the blend.

Coffee: Discarded coffee skins and brewed coffee wastes are byproducts of coffee plantations. Approximately 30 percent of all coffee beans grown worldwide don’t meet global taste standards. Combined, these can place a heavy toll on landfills and waterways. Fortunately, companies are creating paper products that at least incorporate some percentage of these leftovers.

Tobacco: As with the byproducts of coffee plantations, tobacco plantations discard significant amounts of cigar fiber and tobacco leaf stems. These leaf stems are not suitable for cigar rolling because of their stiff and solid nature. Paper products are being manufactured from a blend of these leftovers and post-consumer paper. Approximately seventeen trees are saved for every ton of tobacco fiber used.

Denim scraps: Denim offers durability and has been used as an ingredient in U.S. currency. Manufacturers of denim in the States are often the suppliers of such scraps. By turning them into paper, mills can curb the amount of such byproducts that end up in the landfill.

Greenbacks: Bills taken out of circulation by the Federal Reserve System that have been traditionally dumped into landfills are being snapped up by some companies to provide yet another tree-free alternative. Made from linen fibers and recovered cotton, old money makes excellent and hearty paper.

Other types of tree-free paper products may be made of other vegetables and agricultural products such as garlic, bamboo, cotton, and tea leaves.

Available Products

So what type of tree-free paper can you count on? Enough to meet your personal and business needs. Stationery, letterhead, business card paper, printer paper, blank cards, holiday cards, note pads, note sheets, sketch books, personal journals, and wrapping paper can be found in various tree-free paper fibers, blends, and weights.

Even paper towels and tissues are available in some tree-free fiber blends.

Hundreds of companies are offering alternatives to wood pulp. Following is a sampling of such companies that offer good tree-free options:

Eco’Fields — Offers Christmas cards, sketch pads, stationery pads, computer paper reams, etc., in hemp, coffee, banana, and cigar waste fibers, among others. E-mail ecofields@msn.com or call 312-867-0624; 1708 North Wells St., Chicago, IL.

Green Field Paper Company — Provides paper products consisting of hemp, organic cotton scraps, waste paper, and agricultural wastes. Offers sketch books, holiday cards, stationery, mini stationery paper reams with envelopes, and Grow-A-Notes, this writer’s personal favorite tree-free product. With embedded vegetable, herb, or flower seeds, they can be planted by the recipient and — voila! — chili peppers, sunflowers, or basil result. E-mail: gfpaper@aol.com; call 619-338-9432.

Earth-Friendly Market: Ylana’s Network for Self-Empowerment and Sustainable, Non-Toxic Living — Sells tree-free paper from hemp, flax, and cotton; tree-free wrapping paper, holiday cards, journals, stationery, sketch books, card sets, and Grow-A-Notes; and 100 percent tree-free paper products made with junk mail, garlic skins, roasted coffee chaff, hemp threads, and brewed tea leaves. E-mail: ylanas@earthlink.net; call 800-260-2972.

Crane & Company — Offers high-quality tree-free office and printer paper in various weights and fibers, such as blended varieties of hemp, kenaf, denim, and old money. Visit www.crane.com; call 800-233-5461.

Costa Rican Natural — Sells paper products made from alternative agricultural residues as the secondary paper content source (the primary being post-consumer tree paper). Stationery, envelopes, laser paper made of blends of banana, coffee, and cigar fibers. Products distributed in the States via InterArt; call 800-457-4045.

Ecolution — Offers 100 percent hemp paper. Call 800-769-HEMP.

KP Products Inc. — Allegedly the country’s largest kenaf paper supplier. Call 505-294-0293.

Wild Art Cards & Posters — Sells 100 percent tree-free hemp stock. Call Green Goddess Publishers at 250-629-2027.

Ecosource Paper Inc. — Specializes in industrial hemp paper with flax and cotton, including invitations, office paper, stationery, and tree-free wrapping paper. E-mail: ecodette@islandnet.com; call 800-665-6944.

Colorado Hemp Initiative Project — Sells notepads made of 50 percent industrial hemp and 50 percent straw paper.

The Real Earth — Offers old blue jeans, bamboo, kenaf, banana fiber, and old money paper products such as note pads, computer paper, and gift sets. E-mail: treeco@treeco.com

Eco-scape Images — Journals and greeting cards with nature photos printed on kenaf paper. Call 800-903-2334.

Even a number of Borders Books, Music and Café stores, including the one in downtown Chicago (312-573-0564), are now carrying papers with straw and cotton content.

Making a Difference (one sheet at a time)

Can small, individual acts make a difference to our planet? Absolutely. Some of the biggest ripples to challenge the established status quo of environmental apathy have been spearheaded by one individual at a time.

Going tree-free won’t solve monumental ecological woes. But it can sure make a nice little move to help support a more sustainable, responsible paper option.

Ana Arias Terry is a freelance writer based in the mountains of Bellvue, CO. She is vegan, a fan of hugs, and believes in Don Quixote and the pursuit of dreams.

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