In one episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! the hosts show that it is actually better for the environment to take down (and plant) new trees instead of recycling paper. The latter supposedly pollutes a lot and there aren't really any energy savings going on. Could someone please look into these claims and add some counterpoints to the current article?Firstly, it must be noted that the particular show mentioned is an entertainment show, factually speaking, it has on many occasions been derided by a number of scientists for distorting their scientific research and for making extremely dubious and often totally unproven claims.Wheras there has been much discussion on this topic, basically all serious published research shows that recycled paper is a lot better for the enviroment. Put simply, the amount of energy that is required to chop the trees down, then transport them, then woodchip them and then turn them into pulp makes recycled paper a lot more energy efficient and enviromentally friendly. Also, new paper requires the use of extremely polluting chemicals like chlorine which are only required in either small amounts, or often not at all, in paper recycling bleeching.Also, continually planted forests contribute to soil erosion and degradation as the nutrients are continually removed with the trees. This means that 'farmed' forests often require the use of large quantities of artificial fertilizers, the production, transportation and regular application of these is extremely energy intensive and enviromentally damaging. Selective use of statistics is often used in such TV shows and in such books to try to claim both paper and other recycling methods are supposably less energy efficient than using raw materials, but no scientifically condoned research has ever shown any of the common recycling processes (i.e. aluminium, glass, paper, plastics & steel) to be less enviromentally friendly or energy inefficient than raw material creation and disposal over the long term. On the contrary, basically all research studies show massive enviromental and energy savings by recycling materials such as paper.
:-j