Does Recycling Really Save Trees?

Not according to an article from the Encyclopedia of Economics and Liberty.

"Ironically, recycling does not eliminate environmental worries. Recycling is a manufacturing process and, like other manufacturing processes, can produce pollution. An EPA study of toxic chemicals found such chemicals in both recycling and virgin paper processing, and for most of the toxins studied, the recycling process had higher levels than the virgin manufacturing did. Nor will recycling more newspapers necessarily preserve trees, because many trees are grown specifically to be made into paper. A study prepared for the environmental think tank Resources for the Future estimated that if paper recycling reached high levels, demand for virgin paper would fall. As a result, writes economist A. Clark Wiseman, “some lands now being used to grow trees will be put to other uses.” The impact would not be large, but it would be the opposite of what most people expect—there would be fewer trees, not more. Finally, curbside recycling programs require additional trucks, which use more energy and create more pollution."

--Jane Shaw, "Recycling," from Encyclopedia of Economics and Liberty, http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Recycling.html

(p.s. If you read the entire article, you'll find that she is not against all recycling. But like a true economist, she looks at the hidden costs, not just the obvious monetary costs.)