Researchers at Fort Polk, Louisiana, investigated whether pulverised classified paper waste could help restore military training land. Military training grounds can experience soil disturbance from movement of vehicles and soldiers across the land, making vegetation establishment more difficult. The US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) reported that native plant cover was 45% higher on plots receiving the recommended paper treatment compared to control plots. The experiment examined whether shredded paper could serve as a soil amendment while providing an alternative use for waste otherwise sent to landfill. The findings were published in 2019 in Soil and Tillage Research , wherein researchers recommended applying pulverised paper at 35.9 metric tonnes per hectare.
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