Impact of paper consumption
Although it’s considered to be a cheap and disposable commodity, paper products have a devastating impact on the environment. Paper production contributes to deforestation (globally, 40% of industrial logging is for the purpose of papermaking), it ranks third in highest energy consumption of all manufacturing industries, and the practices of pulping and bleaching paper introduces toxic chemicals into the air, water, and soil. More than 40% of landfill waste is paper, and while every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, recycling alone doesn’t mitigate the effects paper production has on the planet
Save
Even with the advent of new technologies that ought to render our world virtually paperless, between 1983 and 2003 annual paper consumption in South Africa had more than doubled.
Curbing our addiction to paper will mean more trees, less pollution, less waste, and more money in your pocket.
How?
Reuse the Paper You Have
Always try to use both sides of every sheet of paper.
For work collaborations, you can share, edit, and manage documents paperlessly online with software like Titus, DropBox, Google doc’s
Print Smart
When you need to print a document, keep these paper-saving tips in mind:
– Adjust the settings so the margins are shorter in width, to say 1cm or less, which will translate to less pages printed.
– Use doubled-side / “duplex mode” so that both sides of the paper is used for printing.
– When you only need a single page of a lengthy document, make sure you only print the page you require.