[isaac_is_goat]

Silliness. Paper is a sustainable, and easily renewable resource...we don't need to find alternatives if we just keep planting trees.

[tommoor]

From the article: "To make a ton of regular paper requires 100 tons of water". It hardly seems silly to avoid that cost, fresh water is on it's way to being a scarce resource in many parts of the planet.

[true_religion]

It's not a scarce resource in the parts of the planet where the paper is produced, and it is not cost effective to transport water to these places in sufficient quantities for it to no longer count as 'scarce'.

[turbohedgehog]

The water doesn't just disappear into thin air. It gets reused sometimes and then get treated and released or reused.

[InitialLastName]

Side point: water literally just disappears into thin air.

[trentmb]

dumb question: can we splice a gene or two from a mangrove with whatever trees are used for paper products to have salt-water paper trees?

[saagarjha]

I think most of the water usage is not from growing the trees, but in the actual manufacturing process.

[sschueller]

But that 100 tons of water will convert a large amount of CO2 to O2 as the trees grow. Rocks don't capture any CO2.

[sirclueless]

I believe that number is purely the water used converting pulp into paper, not water consumed growing trees. I've heard it's 400 parts water and one part pulp, not sure how accurate that is.[1]

[1]: http://www.alternet.org/environment/whats-better-environment...

[pmarreck]

This may be true but paper made from a different source might have other benefits like lack of waterloggability or general durability