Solid waste has doubled in the U.S. since 1960. Between 1975 and 1997 recovered paper tripled. Despite good efforts, increased paper use is overwhelming gains made in recovery. We need to move away from ultra bright writing papers . Many recycled papers are downgraded into other products due to the brightness issue.
New technologies can easily meet the standards for brightness and strength.
Yet the standards are unnecessarily high. Use alternative fibers . Nonwood fibers were the original sources of paper fiber. One estimate is 1 hectare of cereal grain can yield 1 ton of straw leaving behind for tillage. We have 2 billion tons of Ag byproducts available each year though we only use 35 million tons.