Facts about U.S. Paper Use

Every year, the United States consumes over 90 million tons of paper.  This paper use is an average of nearly 700 pounds per person — over ten times what it was at the turn of the century.  The overall paper industry was $129 billion of our economy (in 1993).

	Total paper consumption in 1993 was 91.4 million tons; paper production was 86.6 million tons, with the difference made up by net imports.  The economic value of paper industry output was $130 billion.
	"Printing and Writing" paper consumption was about 27.8 million tons (not counting 12.8 million tons of newsprint), with about 3.7 million tons of this copy paper.  An additional 1.9 million tons was forms paper, much of it computer printout (much of it used for similar uses as copy paper).
	The U.S. had about 30% of worldwide paper-making capacity in 1991.  The paper industry accounted for just over 3% of all U.S. energy use in that year.
	The typical U.S. office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year.
	In 1993 over 92 billion items of first class mail were sent with U.S. mail over 700,000 items of Priority and Express mail. These weighed about 1.8 and 0.6 million tons respectively.  Not all first class mail is paper and only some of that is office paper but a lot of office paper does get shipped around. (source: U.S. Postal Service "Cost And Revenue Analysis", 1994).

International Comparison