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Perhaps we can reconsider recycling of paper products as a first step? If you send a paper bag to the landfill it’s buried in the ground (sequester), a tree is
by DenisM 7y ago
Perhaps we can reconsider recycling of paper products as a first step?
If you send a paper bag to the landfill it’s buried in the ground (sequester), a tree is cut down to make a new paper bag, and a new tree is planted to make new material for more bags. Thus carbon is continuously captured from the air and buried deep.
If you recycle a bag then the old tree dies of old age and decomposes releasing the captured carbon back into the air. The new tree repeats the cycle, with no net carbon capture.
- ianstormtaylor 7y agoNot sure if you’re joking or not, but that is not how it works at all. https://ensia.com/features/methane-landfills/ https://ensia.com/features/methane-landfills/
- DenisM 7y agoI’m not joking and my observation does not square with your link. A close friend has taken a tour of a local landfill in WA state and was shown a perfectly preserved months-old banana that was dug out by the presenter from the landfill. Apparently the landfills, at least here, are completely sealed. If a banana stays “fresh” for months a sheet of paper will stay fresh for a century. And be that as it may, suppose we create special landfill for paper - that one can easily be made completely sealed and good for a thousand years.
- hedora 7y agoModern landfills have pumps to push oxygen into the garbage to accelerate decomposition. Without them, newspaper takes >> 50 years to decompose. Diverting waste paper to a sealed dump would definitely sequester carbon. (But you need to make sure the production of new paper is carbon neutral vs recycling for this to work out).
- DenisM 7y agoHow can production be not carbon neutral? When trees are cut new trees grow in their place, unless the place is used as a construction site or something. https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/mass-timber-construction-really-renewable-and-sustainable.html https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/mass-t...
- ZeroGravitas 7y agoEnergy is used to make fresh products. This is the main reason recycling is better from a climate change point of view. As long as we're burning fossil fuels to produce new paper, the energy savings of recycling are going to translate into lower carbon emissions.