I live in Maine, and many paper mills here have closed down over the past couple of years. The companies haven’t moved or gone overseas. They simply closed. As we all know, digital communication is making paper less and less necessary. Plastics are also taking over many of the other uses of paper. Our politicians often talk about wanting to save the paper industry, but if nobody wants to buy the paper the mills make, it’s a futile effort. Is paper going to fade away in the next few years?
Nope
In structural decline, yes. Completely go away, never.
Coated free sheet (printer paper) has been on a steady decline as people print less, make fewer copies, and keep information digitally. But, paper packaging is actually on the rise, as consumers continue to demand more environmentally friendly packaging. Container board (corrugated boxes) continue to rise…see Amazon deliveries. And other consumer goods (toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, etc. continue to hold steady. The paper industry will continue to be around for a while longer.
Depends on market. Head for India, e.g., young man.
Global Paper Industry 2012-2017: Trends, Profits and Forecast Analysis
The global paper industry experienced stable growth during the last five years and is expected to continue its growth momentum, reaching approximately US $256 billion in 2017 with a CAGR of 5.9% over the next five years (2012-2017).
Lucintel, a leading global management consulting and market research firm, has analyzed the global paper industry and presents its findings in “Global Paper Industry 2012-2017: Trend, Profit, and Forecast Analysis.”
The paper industry is highly fragmented. APAC* dominates this industry and was the major contributor with a 42% growth rate in 2011 due to improvement in changing lifestyle of consumers, urbanization, and rise in disposable income. A combination of factors such as demographic condition, economic condition, and environmental regulations has had a significant impact on the industry dynamics.
Lucintel’s research indicates that in 2011, the industry witnessed good growth over 2010 due to an increase in the number of press publications, which increased usage of newsprint and nonnewsprint papers such as newsletters, journals, etc. Paper demand has increased rapidly as China and other Asian markets have depicted significant growth APAC is emerging as the best growth prospect in the coming years with increasing demand for paper from the pulp and paper manufacturing sector. …
*APAC: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, The United States & Viet Nam.
I would have to assume a lot of is consolidation and many of the old mills are not modern and efficient. The plants that are efficient and have economy of scale survive. I grew up on a ranch in the 70’s & 80’s and have worked in manufacturing for 20 years. It’s a familiar tale.
Considering the fact that most people have an irrational dislike of electronic books, no. I’ve heard that even college kids don’t like them. Why is that?
Because people are dumb. I luuuuuurv my Kindle app.
I predict writing paper will remain stationery for a long time to come.
USPS puts about 100 pounds of it in my mailbox every year.
Every shipment I get from Amazon is in a box that is about twice as big as it needs to be.
The average housewife, on each shopping trip, carries home about a cubic yard of paper towels, toilet paper, etc.
Dry processed foods all come in paper or cardboard containers.
I don’t envision any of those things taking much of a hit. All of the above are actually increasing in our economy.
Toilet paper is doing fine. Shit pays all my bills. Literally!
As long as there is that person in the office who prints out every email*, makes a copy, loses the copy, and then makes another copy, no. As long as there is a supervisor who takes the email that was sent company wide, re-sends it to his minions, and then prints out copies to tape over water fountains and on break fridges, no.
*this will also be the person who uses their work email as personal email and the printouts will include jokes, recipes, directions to the family reunion, and every forwarded email scare known to man since cabbage coup diets and Bill Gates paying you to forward emails.
Making paper from traditional forestry/logging methods is on the decline. Modern lumber mills have very little wood waste and because of that a much higher percentage of that waste is bark and unsuitable for efficient paper production. The industry is moving towards plantation style forestry which is centered around the southern US.
I asked a coworker for an email she received once. She printed it out and faxed it to me.
To just read a book, Kindle is great. But if you’re highlighting and making scribbled notes on a text when you’re studying it, there is still no good way to do this electronically. Same with something like a tax return.
It might be just me, but I suspect a message was being sent… 
(like don’t bother me, find your own email)
Mills in the northeast have been steadily closing for a century. (Every town has at least one, sometimes a dozen relics.) Yet the world mysteriously still has a huge demand for thread, carpet, shoes, textiles and paper.
You should be fined for that.
Theoretically, there could be a valid reason for that; even in a forwarded email the email header (which most programs hide by default and so most people are not even aware of) contains a lot of information, some of which might be confidential, or which she is unwilling to share for whatever reason. There are more efficient ways of transmitting the message body without the header info, but her method does have the advantage of ensuring all metadata is well and truly scrubbed.
Unless she printed it out with the header, in which case, yeah, :rolleyes: applies.
In triplicate. Did you get the memo about that?
I’ll put another copy in your box,
Aren’t we using more paper than ever? What do you think will cause the decline?