Going paperless is easier than you think. It just might take some extra effort on your part at the beginning to start out, but once it is all in place, it should be second nature to go paperless!
Think of the impact your actions will have- about 90% of paper comes from trees, the majority of which are not sustainably harvested. By reducing our paper use we can reduce our support for this generally non-renewable industry.
Therefore, here are 10 ways in which you can jump on the paperless bandwagon! I hear it is a fun ride.
1- Refuse junk mail. The USA uses approximately 68 million trees each year to produce 17 billion catalogs and 65 billion pieces of direct mail.
2-Reduce the amount of documents and emails that you print at home and at work. The average daily web user prints 28 pages a day.
3-Send e-cards instead of buying and sending paper cards. If everyone in the US sent one less holiday card, we would save over 50,000 cubic yards of paper and in China, 10,000 trees that are cut down annually to make holiday cards.
4-Invest in an E-reader to read books, magazines and newspapers. Every year in the United States, over 2 billion books, 359 million magazines and 24 billion newspapers are published.
5-When printing out documents- print on both sides. If offices throughout the USA increased the rate of two-sided photocopying from the 1991 figure of 20% to 60%, they could save the equivalent of about 15 million trees.
6-Use recycled paper or FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper. Every ton of recycled paper used saves about 17 trees and the process of recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing virgin timber paper.
7-Use cloth towels to dry your hands. The average person alone uses 2,400 – 3,000 paper towels a year at work.
8.Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones. To make one ton of paper towels, 17 trees are cut down and 20,000 gallons of water are consumed.
9.Switch to electronic bills, statements and payments. In one year, the average American can save: 6.6 pounds of paper, 63 gallons of water and 4.5 gallons of gasoline by switching to electronic statements, bills and payments. As well as, 171 pounds of greenhouse gases could be saved, which is the equivalent of not driving 169 miles, planting two trees and allowing them to grow for 10 years, or preserving 24 square feet of forest from deforestation.
10.Use discarded paper for scrap paper. Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year – enough to build a 12-foot-high wall of paper from New York to California.
Just remember, when you are about to use a piece of paper or print an email- throwing it out or composting it causes the paper to rot. This in turn will emit methane gas which is 25 times more toxic than CO2.
So, which number are you going to begin with to reduce your footprint today?
Written By: Stephanie Moram, Good Girl Gone Green
Sources:
•iD2 Communications: http://www.id2.ca/downloads/eco-design-paper-facts.pdf
•People Towels: http://www.peopletowels.com/
•Pay it Green: http://www.payitgreen.org/consumer/FAQ.aspx#general-1
•Pile of Junk Mail Photo: Dvortygirl
