Facts About Paper

Why is the standard paper size in the U.S. 8 ½" x 11"?
Every day, U.S. papermakers recycle enough paper to fill a 15 mile long train of boxcars.
The first paper merchant in America was Benjamin Franklin, who helped to start 18 paper mills in Virginia and surrounding areas.
For hundreds of years, cotton and linen rags were the papermaker's raw materials.
During the American Revolution, paper was so hard to find that soldiers ripped pages from books to use them as wadding for their rifles.
In 2010, 77 percent of paper and paperboard mills used some recovered paper and 115 mills used only recovered paper.
Every ton of paper that is recovered saves 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
In 2010, the amount of paper recovered for recycling averaged 334 pounds for each man, woman and child in the United States
Recovered paper accounts for more than 37 percent of fiber used to make new paper products in the U.S.
87 percent (311 million) of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs
U.S paper recovery has grown by 77 percent since 1990, when the paper industry established its first recovery goal to advance recycling.
Paper was invented by the Chinese around 105 A.D. and was kept a secret for many years.
We use kraft paper every day when we ask supermarkets to pack our groceries in brown paper bags.
Bags were first measured by how many pounds of sugar they held. (i.e., a 1 lb. bag was named that because it held 1 lb of sugar, a 2 lb bag because it held 2 lbs. of sugar, etc.)
Paper grocery bags come in a variety of paper weights from light (30 lb.) to heavy-duty (70 lb.) and 14 stock sizes, capable of holding 2 to 25 pounds. The standard paper grocery bag measures about 12 inches wide, 7 inches deep, and 17 inches tall. A shorter bag, measuring just 14 inches tall, is becoming increasingly popular. Today's paper grocery bags may also have a paper handle--on either the standard or shorter bag--making them easy to carry and reuse.