How Many Trees Are Cut Down Each Year

There are over 15-20 million trees cut down each year. We have to keep the planet with a lot of trees, not to cut them down. We have to plant more trees in the next years.

The 2005 report concludes that primary forest area (as opposed to plantations)was reduced globally by 60,000 square kilometers per year (about the size of Ireland). Note that this data is incomplete due to a lack of available data from many countries who do not monitor such change. As to the “number of trees” this represents, it’s impossible to get an accurate count. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3 billion to 6 billion trees per year.

Every year, on average, the amount of trees that are cut down are about the size of Ireland and 2 billion of those trees go to making paper (toilet paper, printer paper, cards, etc.)

As for what purpose this logging is for, pg. 129 of the 2007 report provides statistics on global production and consumption of woodfuel (charcoal and other energy uses) roundwood (paper and other non-lumber products) and sawnwood (lumber). It estimates global production at 1.7 billion (46 percent) , 1.6 billion (43 percent) and 421 million (11 percent) cubic meters respectively with comparable volumes consumed globally.

• To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
• Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
• If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
• During World War II when raw materials were scarce, 33% of all paper was recycled. After the war, this number decreased sharply.
• If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you’d get about 700 of them. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!!
• The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• When you smell a dump, what you’re actually smelling is the paper in the dump!
• Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
• The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
• In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
• In 1993, nearly 36,000,000 tons of paper were recoverd in the U.S.–twice as much in 1980.
• 27% of the newspapers produced in America are recycled.
• Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
• The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
• The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.