It appears not every bit of environmental news out of China bespeaks disaster. A new report from Forest Trends, an NGO, credits Chinese willingness to use recycled waste paper with the salvation of millions of tons’ worth of forests worldwide:
“Just last year, China’s use of waste-paper instead of trees to make paper products probably saved 54 million metric tons of wood being harvested for pulp,” said Brian Stafford, the report’s lead author.
Over the past decade, the study said, the nation’s imports of waste-paper had increased five-fold, making it the world’s biggest consumer of the material. [Full Text]
The report warns, however, that future demand for paper products in China may exceed supply of recycled material.
This comes on the heels of a report earlier this month, also from the BBC, that Chinese manufacturers are responsible for denuding the Earth of tropical woods.
[Image: A man in Yantai bikes a load of cardboard to the recycling center, by china.sixty4]
