Deforestation SUCKS! GrassTB Has an Innovative Way to Help
Even with the near-extinction of hand writing letters and paying our bills with paper checks sent through the mail in paper envelopes, humans use tons of paper each and every year and of course most of that paper comes from trees. The rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares annually between 2015-2020. Large swaths of the world’s rainforests have been decimated. Millions of trees are being cut down, and forests are being burned, yet we still plan to use trees to make paper products. GrassTB, a company working to turn grass into paper, wants to be part of the solution. They want to save our planet and our future by keeping the earth green and clean.
Why use grass instead of trees?
Abundance
In the US and globally, grass is more abundant than trees. Grass also replenishes itself much faster. Trees used to make paper take 15 years from seed to mature before being harvested.
Cost
Grass costs at least 40% less than trees to acquire, produce, and maintain when considering labor, time, machinery, transportation requirements, as well as availability and accessibility.
Environmental Impact
Ideally, each paper made from grass directly reduces the number of trees cut down to make the paper as GrassTB’s purpose is not to create a new industry but to reinvent the way we make paper!
Social Impact
With deforestation, the plastic waste crisis, and Global Warming at the forefront of our world’s environmental discussions, the introduction of our discovery and its positive environmental impacts make us a very appealing and socially responsible company.
Sustainable
Grass pulp is sustainable for many reasons. It is abundant (readily available through communities) and characterized by rapid growth. As mentioned above, this will reduce transportation pollution and third-party costs. Processing trees requires more electrical energy and chemical use, resulting in unnecessary pollution wastes. This is costly and harms the environment. Essentially, grass offers us the exciting opportunity for a closed-loop supply chain in meaningful ways like restoring the planet and providing for the community. We can take grass from our community and give back in consumable paper product forms, embracing the “circle of life” concept.​
Domestic
Grass provides domestic benefits. Accessibility to grass reduces and may eliminate the need to import raw materials nationally and internationally. Best yet, we can create job opportunities within the United States, an area where the U.S. economy is experiencing growing losses.
Flexible
Our grass fiber is FLEXIBLE; it can be made into a wide range of paper products. We decided to focus on paper straws, napkins, toilet paper, and masks to kick off our project. These items will help amend shortages due to the pandemic and tackle existing environmental problems like plastic and landfill wastes.