Fun factoids

Paper was so scarce Revolutionary War soldiers used pages ripped from books as wadding for their rifles.

Benjamin Franklin, America's first paper merchant, helped start 18 paper mills in Virginia and surrounding areas.

The average American uses about 700 pounds of paper and paper products a year. Thanks to recycling, we recover 40 percent of this paper for reuse.

In the United States alone, papermakers recycle enough paper to fill 15 miles of boxcars each day.

Papermaking fibers can typically be recycled 5 to 7 times before they become too short to be recycled again.

Each year in the United States, more than 2 billion books, 350 million magazines and 24 billion newspapers are published.

One cord of wood will yield 4.4 million commemorative-size postage stamps or 61,370 standard envelopes or as much as 2,000 pounds of paper.

Paper from wood is a renewable resource. The United States has more trees today than 70 years ago. The forest industry alone plants more than 1.5 billion trees annually.

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