From Associated Press from Examiner.com:
China’s booming recycling industry is helping to slow the destruction of forests worldwide, providing a strong market for wastepaper that mostly comes from the United States and Europe , according to a study released Friday.
But the report from the Washington-based Forest Trends also warns that despite the trees spared though the use of wastepaper, China’s growing demand for wood increasingly fuels the destruction of virgin forests in parts of Asia and Africa. About 60 percent of the fiber used to manufacture paper and paper board products in China is derived from wastepaper, the report found. In the last decade, China’s wastepaper imports increased by more than 500 percent – from 3.4 million tons in 1996 to 21.6 million tons in 2006 – with most of that growth occurring between 2002 and 2006. [Full Text]
