Paper pulp, from wood

Paper pulp is an intermediate material for production of paper. Depends on the process used and the quality of the pulp, it uses 1 to 2 pounds of wood for 1 pound of pulp. Most wood pulp mills generate their own heat energy from scraps and waste, but they also need to use some electricity. Pulp requires also bleaching (with chlorine or other chemicals) and other processing, all of which uses significant quantities of water. About 60% of the water used is treated, the remaining 40% is discharged as liquid waste. Thus, even though the process used about 6 gallons of water, only 2.4 gallons is used for calculations.

Despite many efforts, there is still quite a lot of pulp produced from wood harvested from old-growth forest (not from plantations), which has additional environmental impact.