Through 2025, the paper end-use market output in the United States is expected to increase roughly a 0.4 percent.
It is expected that the paper end-use market output will experience a decreasing rate of 2.1 percent from 2019 to 2020. The industry has been heavily criticized due to its unsustainable deforestation of old-growth forests and illegal practices in some regions, most notably in the Amazon Rainforest. Growth in the industry has also quickly expanded in countries like China and Russia where low wages and a lack of environmental consideration are common.
China and the United States produce, by far, the world’s greatest volumes of paper and cardboard, reaching nearly 109 million metric tons and 72 million metric tons, respectively, in 2018. One of the largest companies in the world in the forest, paper, and packaging industry is International Paper, an American company with its headquarters in New York. International Paper was founded in 1898 when 18 pulp and paper mills in northeastern United States were merged. The company generated 21.7 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2017. Its most common products are plastic lids and paper cups, which fuel many large fast food chains such as McDonald’s. The industry in the United States as a whole garnered some 100 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2015.