[kevinalexbrown]

I'm more curious about the byproducts and energy consumption of each manufacturing process. I have no idea, does anyone have a good comparison?

Aside: supposedly global pulp production is 34 percent recycling, 45 percent from sawmill waste, and 21 percent 'logs and chips.'[0] The wikipedia article later states, from another source, that 16 percent of production comes from tree farms. The gist of your general point stands, as I understand it: we're not going out and cutting old growth or even secondary growth forests for paper (though we make use of reject trees when we target them for other reasons).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_(paper)

[troyvit]

What do we clear out to make room for the tree farms and what is their long term effect on the environment?

http://www.ibiblio.org/london/agriculture/general/1/msg00074...

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/why-tree-plantations-...

(not to say a limestone quarry is a better solution...)

[zebrafish]

A large majority of the energy used in paper mills comes from the bark of the trees. Logs have to be debarked before they can be pulped and the bark eventually becomes fuel that supplies power to much of the mill.

[atupis]

This http://bioproductmill.com/bioproducts is probably at the moment most advanced pulp mill in the world and it produces 1,800 GWh per year.