This moving estimate uses The World Counts’ published annual figure of 420 million tonnes of paper and cardboard, distributed evenly across the current calendar year. “This year” and “Today” start at midnight UTC. “Since you arrived” starts when this page loads. It is an estimate of production, not a direct measurement of paper waste or books landfilled. The falling books are illustrative and do not represent a quantity.
Live estimate based on 420 million tonnes/year · The World Counts
A better ending for old textbooks
The last chapter shouldn’t be a landfill.
A book is made of paper. But that doesn’t mean it belongs in the blue bin. Hardcover and paperback books aren’t accepted in Recycle BC’s residential recycling program.
When paper ends up buried in a landfill, it can break down without oxygen and generate methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
We give discarded textbooks another purpose. Here in the Okanagan, our student team turns reclaimed paper into Smile Starters and Fire Bricks—keeping those pages in use and out of landfill.
From a discarded textbook to your next fire. Five chapters. A second life.
Process illustrationThe journey begins with reclaimed paper.Process illustrationPages become the raw material for a new product.Paper Trail / Behind the scenesOur team at work, turning paper into a new product.Paper Trail / Finished productFinished Fire Bricks, made here in the Okanagan.Paper Trail / In useFrom old pages to a fire worth gathering around.01 / 05
Scroll to follow the transformation
01 / The beginning
A book with more to give.
It starts with a discarded textbook. We remove the paper from its cover and binding, ready to give those pages another purpose.
02 / A change of form
Break it down. Keep its potential.
The pages are shredded into smaller pieces. The words may disappear, but the material still has a part to play.
03 / Taking shape
A new shape. A new purpose.
We compress the shredded paper in our custom metal moulds, shaping it into a Fire Brick.
04 / Ready for a spark
The finishing touch.
A beeswax coating finishes the brick, with sawdust helping it catch a flame. Reclaimed paper, sawdust and beeswax: familiar materials, brought together.
05 / A brighter ending
Its next chapter starts with a spark.
What began as pages becomes fuel for a fire. This is the second life we make possible for discarded paper.
Paper Trail is a student-led social enterprise from Enactus Okanagan College. We turn reclaimed paper into products you can take outdoors.
A student idea, brought to life.The people building Paper Trail in the Okanagan.Hands on, from paper to product.A look inside the work behind our Fire Bricks.
An outside perspective
See the bricks in action.
Watch “These Bricks are Fire” by Braden Rambold, featured on our original site.
