This question dawned on me one night when thinking about deforestation, and I felt compelled to write this quick post guestimating an answer.
If you’re at least a backseat advocate for the environment, then I think you should care about how many works can be printed from the metaphorical sacrifice of a single tree. After all, without trees, there would be no paper.
With some light research and simple calculations, here are my findings on just how many books we can get from one tree’s worth of resources.
How Many Brand New Books per Tree?
Naturally, the height and thickness of a tree (i.e. its overall volume of usable material) determines how many pages can be made from its pulp, which, in turn, dictates how many books can be made. The length of each book is also fluctuating variable, alongside the quality and thickness of the paper it is printed on, as both require greater resources from each tree.
For the reasons above, there is a lot of noise on the definitive answer of how many books can be made from a single tree. The Independent determined that approximately twenty-five books can be made per tree, Ribble estimates about 10,000 pages come from a forty-five-foot pine tree.
Landing in the rough middle-ground of these two estimations, we can assume that a tree can produce around thirty-three 300-page books. So that’s my answer on how many books initially come from a tree’s worth of resources, somewhere either side of the thirty mark depending on length and paper quality. You can just say thirty total.
How Many Books Can Be Made From That Paper Once Recycled?
According to the American Forest and Paper Association, around 65-69% of recycled paper is usable. After one round of recycling, that means the initial books could reproduce around just shy of twenty books (assuming most other variables like length and paper quality were unchanged).
Total Possible Amount of Books per Tree
But I’m not satisfied with that, so I want to explore the maximum amount of books that could be created from one tree, even if it only results in a rather loose estimate.
Below is my breakdown of the figures, with some rounding for simplicity. I assumed a 65% yield on all recycled paper, so just under two thirds being reusable with each cycle.
Initial New Books: ~30
First Recycle Wave: ~19.5
Second Recycle Wave: ~12.7
Third Recycle Wave: ~8.3
Fourth Recycle Wave: ~5.4
Fifth Recycle Wave: ~3.5
Sixth Recycle Wave: ~2.3
Seventh Recycle Wave: ~1.5
Eighth Recycle Wave: ~1
Total: ~84.2 books
Understanding the Outcome
What this means is the average tree, if every book produced was recycled into brand new paper and reused for printing, then recycled again over and over, could produce around eighty or more books. If none of those books are ever broken down into renewed paper, then the total books sits around thirty or so.
Of course, books are only really broken down and recycled if they are significantly damaged or willingly chucked out by someone who no longer needs or wants them. But, as someone who cares about the environment, it’s nice to know that our assumed standard tree’s sacrifice can result in roughly eighty-four 300-page books being produced. Still, it would be nicer if that figure was much higher, and I am sure there is room to argue that the number could be as low as sixty in select cases when the variables are stacked against it.
However, positively, this means a tree should be able to produce well over one hundred novellas in its lifetime. Another reason why I advocate for shorter fiction and more condensed works. Every fluffed, rambling, unrewarding page of writing is another miniscule amount of our planet’s resources wasted.
And, to you, I recommend you always donate any books you do not wish to keep, and definitely make sure to recycle them if you they are not in donation worthy condition.
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