• Benefits: keeps hundreds of millions of pounds of textile scraps from the landfill; high fiber to pulp ratio; best quality fibers for papermaking; uses existing abundant agricultural residue.
  
  
• Challenges: higher cost due to higher quality fiber; conventional cotton farming is extremely chemical-intensive, though a growing number of farmers are using organic techniques.

Traditionally, the highest quality papers came from clothing fibers: cotton, flax and in ancient China, silk and hemp. That tradition still holds today. Two primary types of cotton fibers are used in papermaking: textile scraps from clothing manufacturers, and cotton linters, the fine fuzz that surrounds a cotton seed. Hundreds of millions of pounds of textile waste are landfilled every year, about a million pounds per day in the U.S. alone. Linter fuzz is almost pure alpha cellulose and therefore ideal as a paper source. It can be processed with minimal chemicals and creates little residual waste.

Few cotton papermakers can rival the centuries-long legacy of Crane & Company (Crane.com) in Dalton, Massachusetts. In 1775 engraver Paul Revere used their early rag paper to print "Sword in Hand Money," a currency issued to revolt against British rule. In the 1990s, Crane introduced Crest R, a white cotton sheet comprised of recovered cotton, now with 30 percent recycled postconsumer cotton fabric. Soon after, they teamed up with three companies to create papers from blue jean scraps, which incidentally have been used by Crane for decades to make an enormously popular paper—U.S. currency.

Cotton is the world's most widely used natural textile fiber, grown in over 70 countries and meeting nearly half of our clothing needs. In fact, only 30 to 40 percent of the cotton plant is used for fiber. The rest—seeds and gin trash—go into the food chain, either as industrially processed cooking oil or animal feed.

Some firms making cotton-based paper: Crane & Company, Esleeck Ecosource, Gilbert, Green Field Paper, Rolland, Watson.