Humans cut down 15 billion trees annually, and about 40 percent of those (nearly six billion) are used to produce pulp and paper. This makes the paper and pulp industry one of the major buyers of harvested wood and the biggest contributor to deforestation.

Unfortunately, paper products are almost irreplaceable for now. From your company’s brochure to your toilet paper roll, many things you use daily come from paper and pulp.

However, there are ways to make paper without cutting down trees.

For instance, a startup called Releaf Paper has developed an innovative method to manufacture paper from the dead leaves that naturally fall from trees. Their approach enables them to produce one tonne of cellulose (raw material for paper and pulp) from 2.3 tonnes of dead leaves.

If they used wood to produce the same amount of cellulose, they would have to cut down 17 trees.

The average city collects at least 8,000 tons of leaves annually, and the total potential of Europe exceeds one million tons only from urban areas.

Instead of burning the dead leaves, several European cities are sending their green waste directly to a facility run by the Releaf Paper team in Paris. Here the leaves are washed, mixed with some biological fillers (which the team didn’t reveal), dried, and then turned into paper bags, notebooks, boxes, wraps, gift items, and various other products.

Source: ZME Science

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/using-dead-leaves-to-make-paper/