The New Paper


       Paper first appeared in 3500 B.C. in the form of papyrus. It was a boon
     to written communications right up to the fifteenth century. Then when
     Gutenberg developed his printing press, the paper explosion really took
     off. Today paper is everywhere. Its use has even grown in the early years
     of the computer age. But for how long?

       For more than a hundred years now Canada has provided a good living for
     many of its citizens from the wealth produced by paper made from trees
     grown in its forests. Today pulp mills are working increasingly longer
     shifts, the price of pulp is rising, and labor unions are demanding ever
     increasing salaries. Now technology offers a new threat.

       The name is kenaf (pronounced ka-naf). It's a tropical Asian plant of
     the hibiscus family. It looks similar to sugar cane or bamboo, grows in
     the same climates, and can be cultivated with many of the same growing
     techniques and equipment as cane or bamboo. It could, along with the now
     genetically altered loblolly pine (formerly known as "the weed of the
     forest"), provide devastating competition to present sources of pulp from
     the forests of the Pacific Northwest and indeed from any temperate zone
     woodlot.

       Most trees take from seven to forty years to reach a usable size for
     pulp. Just making paper requires vast amounts of water and energy; in
     addition, roughly 10 percent of the wood cut is wasted. Paper is also
     rapidly depleting the numbers of oxygen-providing trees. The pulp-making
     process uses acid or alkali, depending on the class of pulp desired, to
     break down the fibers. That material pollutes rivers and streams, causing
     wide-ranging problems. Trees in Canada usually number about 100 to the
     acre. Loblolly pine is now growing in sandy soil in the southern states
     at 250 trees to the acre. With the loblolly pine, enzymes instead of
     sulfites break down the fibers. After the process is completed, that
     water goes back into the streams too, but it is totally biodegradable.

       Kenaf is another magnitude ahead of this. It can produce 300 to 500
     percent more pulp per acre per year than trees -- at half the cost. In
     four to five months it becomes high-quality newsprint paper. Such paper
     takes longer to fade, requires less ink, and provides higher contrast.
     Waste in kenaf production is double that of normal trees, but the
     relative total cost of the waste is minimal because kenaf is so cheap to
     produce.

       Kenaf is already being planted in quantity in Mexico and southern
     Texas. In Thailand recent estimates say it is already providing 10
     percent of the country's newspaper requirements. Look for a new kenaf
     plant to appear shortly near McAllen, Texas. It will be built by Kenaf
     International and is scheduled to produce 230,000 tons of newsprint per
     year. That alone would be one percent of the total U.S. paper production.
     Additional production is planned in another kenaf newsprint plant to be
     built by the Institut de Recherche in France.

       With new environmental regulations coming into effect in 1994 in
     California, temperate forests that have been supplying a major portion of
     the world's newsprint will be in even deeper trouble. The new laws will
     not permit a newspaper to be sold in California unless it is at least 42
     percent recycled fiber. Paper mills in Canada or even in the U.S. Pacific
     Northwest will no longer gather used papers in Los Angeles or New York or
     any other major North American city and truck those papers back to their
     present pulp or paper mills. It just won't be economically viable. It
     will, however, pay a Mexican company to send a barge to Los Angeles,
     gather up old newspapers, and take them back to Mexico, where they can be
     mixed with virgin kenaf to produce a superior, less expensive product.

       Newsprint isn't the only thing you can make from kenaf. It also makes
     good carpet backing and molded auto parts. Canada's economy will feel its
     effects, but the country won't be producing kenaf of its own. It only
     grows in tropical or semi-tropical climates.