Ever wonder what the materials used in making your cardboard delivery boxes are? Trees can provide us with many things: paper, pulp, tannins, dyes, gum, corks, and even gum. You can’t make paper from any tree.

There are two types of trees that are used in papermaking: softwood and hardwood. For paper, softwood trees such as pines, hemlocks and spruces are great trees. For magazines and printing paper that is more durable, hardwood trees like maple, poplars and hickory are better.

Trees have a lot of amazing benefits for humans, wildlife, and the environment. Let’s find out which trees can produce paper, and discuss alternatives.

How Many Trees Are Needed To Make Paper?

It is not difficult to make copy paper considering how thin it is. It is true that a single sheet of paper only uses a small percentage of the tree. How many people actually buy just one piece of …. paper? none, really.

Let’s take a look at how many trees are needed to keep the world spinning. Based on 2016 statistics from Dartmouth University each person used approximately 474 pounds paper in North America that year.

It seems like an enormous number. This includes allpaper products, including computer paper, newspapers and towels. Also, cardboard boxes, corrugated papers, corrugated, and toilet paper are included.

One tree can produce around 8,333 sheets copy paper. This is approximately 6% of the tree that can be used to make each ream (500 sheets strong>).

This is the point: you need many trees to produce paper products for everyone. Where do these trees come from?

For more information on the amount of trees required to allow the paper industry to thrive, see this article: How Many Trees are Cut Down for One Piece Of Paper? It is staggering.

Where Do Paper-Making Trees Come From?

The paper industries don’t want to steal your beautiful backyard oak for their paper products. Where do they find the trees they need to make their paper products?

Many of the wood used for paper-making comes from the waste products of lumbermills. All wood scraps, sawdust and woodchips are sent to paper mills for smashed into pulp, which is then made into paper.

This great way to cut down on the waste of unusable tree parts at lumber mills is an fantastic way. The trunks and not the branches are used in lumber making, so they don’t usually have any use for them. They can chop the branches and send them to a paper mill for good use.

They can also obtain wood from national forests if they don’t get it from lumber mills.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that there are approximately 190,000 acres of trees available for harvesting in various Forest Service lands. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 190,000 acres of trees can be harvested in different Forest Service lands. Although it may seem like a lot of land, the 190,000. acres represents only 1% of the 193,000,000 acres of Service lands.

Paper mills can also acquire forest land if the other options are exhausted. They will clear-cut trees and plant seeds. They won’t be able to cut again for approximately a quarter century.

Can Paper Be Made From Any Tree?

You can make paper from any tree. Why not plantations with the fastest-growing trees? Not all trees can be used to make paper.

There is a reason why some trees make better paper than others. The most popular trees in the paper-making business are birch, pines, spruces and birch. Trees of lower quality can be more expensive to use, both in terms of environmental pollution and monetary value.

The more difficult it is to make paper, then the less useful it will be. Some hardwood trees are too small to be made into paper products. These trees are not worth the time or energy that paper industries would rather spend on them.

This method produces paper products with less waste and requires less energy. Since a few thousand year ago, humans have been making paper. They must have mastered the process by now.

If you are interested, you can give it a go. You can get a jump start with kits like the Aoibrloy paper making screen kit. You can choose between two sizes so that you can make your paper as big or small as you like.

9 Different Trees Used To Make Paper

Let’s get to the good stuff. Since they are the most valuable trees for papermaking, we’ll start with softwoods.

Because of their long fibers, softwoods are great for paper. This is a great combination of paper and other construction materials.

Pine Trees

Pine trees can be conifers or evergreens and keep their holiday-themed needles year round. They can also be used for papermaking because of their long, soft fibers.

These softwoods can also be used to make paper. However, the best option for pine trees is because all pines contain pitch. This means that there are a few additional steps to the pulping process that other softwood trees may not be able to skip.

According to the USDA’s Forest Products Laboratory the most common pine trees for making paper are:

• Lodgepole Pine
• Eastern White Pine
• Southern Yellow Pine
• Jack Pine
• Ponderosa Pine
• Sugar Pine

Heartwood is a key component of pine trees that are used in papermaking. This is the inner, but still strong, part of the pine tree’s stump.

Spruce Trees

You could mistakenly think a spruce for a pine tree if you’re not careful. These trees can also be conifers, evergreens, or softwoods with needles or cones.

The needles are the most significant difference between pine and spruce. The needles in pine trees are connected to the pulvinus, which is a bit like a joint where the needles attach to. In contrast, spruces only have one needle per pulvinus.

Like pine trees, spruce trees come in a range of species. Each one has its own unique characteristics.

There are many uses for Spruce trees. These trees are prized for their ability to produce Christmas trees and wood for musical instruments. They are a wonderful choice for the paper industry.

Hemlock Trees

Hemlock trees can be found all across the United States and Canada. Only fourspecies can be found in North America. The rest are native to Asia.

Eastern and Western are the two main types of hemlock. These names correspond with the locations where the trees are found in the United States. They are both evergreen and coniferous, regardless of the species.

Hemlocks can be more difficult to grow than other trees for long-term purposes. They live up to 900 years, sometimes for as long as 100 years, and are wise and old.

There are many faster options than the hemlock.

Because of the need to bleach eastern hemlocks more, western hemlocks are preferable to eastern. Its pulp is darker and produces weaker paper than the western hemlock.

Fir Trees

There are two types of fir trees. We are referring to true fir trees, not fakers such as Douglas-fir.

True fir trees produce paper of similar quality to spruce. Any true fir tree can produce high-quality paper.

One exception is the California red Fir. Cali red firs are similar to Eastern Hemlocks. They produce a darker pulp that requires more bleaching. Paper manufacturers want their process to be quick, inexpensive, and as convenient as possible. They choose the best fir trees.

White Cedar Trees

Our last softwood tree is the white cedar tree. It is not a cedar tree, despite its name. They may also be known as arborvitae.

These evergreen trees thrive in wet, boggy places with well-drained soils that receive lots of sunlight. Similar to hemlocks, white cedars grow slowly according Iowa State University.

White cedars are great for paper-making and make excellent privacy fences or windbreaks.

How do white cedar trees compare to other softwood trees in paper-making?

It is very easy to turn white cedar into pulp. Each tree produces less fiber than others due to its lower density than a pine or spruce tree.

Hickory Trees

The range of Hickory trees is from the east to the middle of the United States. They are rarer west.

Although these hardwood trees aren’t as used as the softwoods, they can still be made into writing and printing paper.

There are more than 15 species of the hickory tree. All of them belong to the walnut family. We didn’t know that! !

Shipping boxes and corrugated boards are more common uses for Hickory trees, but paper can still be made from the short fibers if they are in good shape. Making these walnut cousins into paper takes more energy than making softwoods. It’s not a highly sought-after product

Poplar Trees

The willow family includes cottonwoods, aspen trees, and balsam polars. These trees all belong to the willow family and are very common in the paper-making industry.

Poplars are not known for making strong paper so they are used often to make magazines and newspapers with thin sheets. They can also be used to make toilet papers.

This tree is both practical and beautiful. You are probably familiar with the quaking Aspens which glow bright yellow in the autumn, but there are many other species that can be used in your yard.

These trees cannot be planted very close to buildings and other structures. Roots can cause foundation damage and sidewalk damage.

Poplars are good wood for pulp production, but they also have the advantage of being quick growers. They can grow as high as five feet per year which is considerably more than an oak tree.

Poplars can reach heights of 50-80 feet at maturity. This makes them an excellent choice for hardwood products such as lumber and plywood as well as softwood products such as paper.

Birch Trees

According to North Carolina State University there are approximately sixty species of birch trees found in the Northern Hemisphere. Birch trees, like other hardwood trees, are deciduous. This means that they lose their leaves in fall and winter.

Birch trees can be used to make paper, just like poplar trees. Because they are a hardwood tree, the fibers are smaller than softwood trees, making the paper less durable.

Books, wrapping paper and container boards are all popular paper-based products made from birch trees.

Birch trees thrive in colder climates where snow covers most of the ground. A birch tree will never be next to a palm.

Maple Trees

Maple syrup is the bestcompanion for pancakes and waffles. Maple syrup is made from maple trees. As do a few paper products!

Maple trees are the closest to birch trees in terms of paper production. This wood is used for making books, wrapping paper, and container paper.

Maples, being a hardwood tree can be used for many purposes. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, they can also be used as furniture or railroad ties.

Maple trees are not as popular as the softwood trees. They also grow slowly, which makes them less desirable than fast-growing trees that can be used for papermaking.

What Are The Best Trees To Make Paper Out Of?

Let’s now look at the top nine trees that can be made into paper.

Paper is best made from fir and spruce trees. These trees are fast-growing and moderately easy to grow, making them more sustainable than other options. True fir and Spruce trees require very little energy to be made into pulp.

These trees can be made into paper without any additional removal or bleaching. Both spruce, fir and other softwood trees are not sought-after for furniture, cabinets or any other manufactured wood products. This makes them more readily available for paper products.

What Are The Worst Trees To Make Paper Out Of?

We have already mentioned that not every tree is suitable for making paper. The tree must have enough fibers to make paper well, and the trunk should not be too full of heartwood.

What trees should paper makers avoid harvesting? These are the least desirable trees:

• Bald Cypress
• Larch
• Redwood
• Douglas Fir
• Red Cedar

These trees are not suitable for papermaking due to the expensive and lengthy process they must go through.

To make paper from wood, it must be alkaline treated and steam pre-treated.

It is not worth the extra time and resources required to convert these trees to paper,especially since the final paper is often weaker and more expensive than other options.

Is Paper Always Made From Trees?

According to the University of Massachusetts southern white pine is the most popular source of paper pulp in America.

Although some companies attempt to be more sustainable in their paper-making process, they still require a lot of trees to make the paper. This means that hundreds of trees must be cleared in order to produce just a few months worth of paper.

Are there any alternatives to trees for papermaking? The surprising answer is yes!

Paper can be made from bamboo, hemp, or cotton. This sounds great news. However, it may make you wonder why we continue to cut down trees for paper.

Hemp was banned in the United States from 1882 to 2018, when it was legalized at federal level. Hemp is a great alternative for paper but it must gain momentum and momentum in order to be able to influence the market.

The Green Field Paper Hemp Heritage(r), Mini Ream is an excellent place to begin testing hemp paper. It is a stark white color and can be used with inkjet or laser printers.

The second reason is that the U.S. is a littlestubborn. While China and India are the largest producers of bamboo pulp, the United States continues to use trees. Why? Because they have always used trees.

Although it may seem like a silly excuse, it is true. It would take a lot of money and time to convert all the forest harvests into bamboo forests. Also, the manufacturing process would need to be changed from wood to bamboo. This requires money, time and new resources.

Paper Can Be Made From Kenaf

It is possible to learn kenaf if you have not heard it before. This potentially world-changing crop is not well known.

Kenaf, a member of the Hibiscus family, is a native African plant. It is related to cotton and okra, and can enjoy warm tropical climates. However, it will shiver at temperatures below 50 degrees.

Kenaf can be very helpful in the wood- and paper industries. This plant has both hardwood and softwood properties. Softwood is best for paper products and hardwood for lumber, furniture, cabinets, and other uses.

The multi-purpose plant’s inner stem is made up of short, hardwood-like fibers. The outer stem is made up of long fibers similar to softwood trees.

The best thing about the kenaf is its ability to mature in six months. The kenaf plant can grow up to 20 feet at maturity, although most plants reach between 8 and 14 feet.

This is a comparison to trees which can take up to 25 years to mature.

According to Purdue University, the only states that spend time researching and using Kenaf are Texas and Mississippi.

Wrapping Up!

When choosing a tree to make paper, there are many things you should consider: what type of tree is used, how much steam or bleach is required, what type of paper can be made, and the quality.

Each tree is made from a different type of wood. One type might be more suitable for magazines while another one is best for copy paper.

The 9 most commonly used trees in the paper industry are:

• Pine
• Spruce
• Hemlock
• True Fir
• White Cedar
• Hickory
• Poplar
• Birch
• Maple

Trees are essential for the health of our environment. Paper alternatives are being investigated because we are more aware than ever about our environmental impact.

The paper industry is moving towards Cotton, hemp, bamboo, and kenaf.

Trees are one of the most important organisms in the world. They provide so many benefits. Maybe you’ll smile more the next time you pass a tree while on your morning commute, or during your lunchtime walk.

To learn more about the different types of trees and which ones will work best in your area, or how you can grow a tree from seed, visit the rest of our website.