Paper Facts
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 The
paper industry has seen many changes in the past 150 years. The demand
of paper is eventually rising with each passing day and there are
certain paper facts that one should know.
- Paper, by definition, is a complex matted web of cellulose
fibers. Genuine parchment, authentic vellum, or papyrus are not true
papers by this definition.
- Paper is made by gathering the plant of choice, and beating it
into a pulp. Water is then added, until the pulp becomes a slurry.
The slurry is then sifted against a screen until it forms an even
layer. Once it dries, a sheet of paper is formed. Refer to my photo
page for step-by-step pictures of the papermaking process.
- Most paper contains sizing. Sizing is any glutinous material used
to fill pores in surfaces that helps to make a stronger sheet of
paper.
- Making a paper requires nearly 3700 pounds of wood over 200
pounds of lime, 360 pounds of soda ash, and 24,000 gallons of water.
- Making paper from raw materials we need to dispose of 84 pounds
of air pollution, 36 pounds of water pollutants and 176 pounds of
soild waste.
- The United States and Canada are one of the world's largest
producers of paper and paper products.
- The U.S. consumption of paper and paperboard in 1999 was
approximately 354 kilograms (about 800 pounds) per person.
- Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 3000 gallons of
water.
- Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing paper
from virgin timber.
- Paper had an overall recycling rate of 35.3% in 1994. About 55.3%
of corrugated boxes, 45.3% of newspapers, 19.3% of books, 30% of
magazines, and 42.5% of office papers were recycled in.
- Recovered paper is used to make a variety of products, including
copier paper, paper towels and napkins, corrugated boxes, and
hydraulic mulch.
- One tree can filter upto 60 pounds of pollutants from the air
each year.
- Good papers are rated as pH neutral . Better papers are called "acid
free", based on the materials they were manufactured from. The
best papers are "archival".
- Paper products use up at least 35 percent of the world's annual
commercial wood harvest.
- More than 70% of today's businesses would fail within 3 weeks if
they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper-based records due to fire
or flood.
- Paper in the average business grows by 22% a year, meaning your
paper will double in 3.3 years.
- Handmade paper are still made today with the same process as used
earlier.
- Handmade Paper is made by gathering the plant of choice, and
beating it into a pulp. Water is then added, until the pulp becomes
a slurry. The slurry is then sifted against a screen until it forms
an even layer.
- Hot Press is the term used to describe the smoothest surface of
watercolor paper, as if it had been ironed using a hot iron to make
it perfectly smooth.
- Soft Press paper has slightly more texture, but is still smooth,
as if the hot ironing had been done, but using less pressure.
- Cold Press paper has even more texture than the previous two, as
if it had been ironed using a colder iron, leaving more bumps.
- Rough paper is the most textured of the watercolor paper
surfaces, as if it had not been ironed at all.
- Rice paper is not really made from rice.
- "Vellum" means different things to different papers.
- Hemp paper can't give you a contact high.
- Handmade paper has the advantage of being 100% wood free which
makes it the most eco-friendly form of paper around.
- It has greater tensile, bursting, tearing and double-fold
strength compared to conventional paper.
- Handmade paper turns out to be little more costly because they
are not mass produced like conventional papers.
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