Is Wood Really a Renewable Resource?

Wood is very often touted as a highly recyclable resource that is vastly superior for its ability to be simply regrown and eventually decompose when done. Depending upon the type used, it is relatively strong and sturdy for its weight. The energetics of wood in a marketplace that is temporally biased towards the short term are very favorable as compared with most metals.

However, wood exists not juts on spreadsheets, but also as a major component in a larger and more complex ecosystem. For instance, it is impossible to consider the energetics of wood without considering the impact that removing trees has on the elimination of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Another important thing to consider is the difference between a small tree and a large tree. Even a tree that is several decades old and nearing what most in the paper and logging industry would deem “harvestable” size differs considerably in the composition of the ecosystem around it from an old growth tree. The characteristics of the wood are also different.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Growing Bigger

Somewhere, in the middle of the most deserted place on Earth is the world’s largest garbage dump. Hundreds of miles from even the nearest land, a current known as the Great Pacific Gyre naturally swirls and whirls in a vast circular motion. For millenia, this has caused a natural feeding ground to form that supports a great diversity of marine life, including the great albatross and massive sea turtles.

However, if you were to fly over this part of the ocean today, you’d still find all those animals, but they’d be floating on and in a massive pile of trash, tens of miles across. The same currents that collect phytoplankton and zoo plankton have gathered items that have spilled from ships bringing recyclables to port and others that are bringing the raw materials back across the ocean for remanufacture.

All this plastic is broken down by the sun into smaller and smaller pieces that many animals mistake for food, filling up on it to the point where they can no longer actually digest real food.