11 Mar Reduce your paper consumption
The world paper production is constantly growing and it reaches more than 400 tons per year, which represents about 13 kg of paper produced each second. Paper consumption continues to increase faster than production capabilities. This paper production breaks down as follows:
- packaging and wrapping paper: 54%
- printing and writing paper: 27%
- household and toilet paper: 8%
- newsprint: 7%
- others: 4%
E-commerce and home delivery have a disastrous impact on environment: they represent a huge consumption of cardboard and papers for packaging. They also lead to considerable emissions of CO2 during deliveries.
By reducing my consumption of paper (double-sided printing, reusing scrap paper, using recycled paper, placing a “no advertising” sticker on my mail box etc), I don’t contribute to the development of paper industry, which seriously affects biodiversity (deforestation, water consumption, use of chemical products…).
The trick to take up the challenge
It is true that paper is 100% recyclable. However, only 55% of it is recycled. The remainder is buried or incinerated with non-recyclable waste.
To limit our consumption of paper, there are several alternatives worth exploring :
- The easiest one is to place a “no advertising” sticker on our mail box, in which an average of 35 kg of ads build up every year.
- Prefer recycled paper, which requires 20 times less water and twice less energy than the production of classic pulp.
Moreover, from one ton of used paper, 900 kg of recycled paper can be produced, whereas almost 3 tons of wood are necessary to produce one ton of classic paper.
- Avoid e-commerce as much as possible, considered a packaging-intensive industry.
- Print your mail only when it is absolutely necessary, stop using disposable tableware made of cardboard, think of double-sided printing, reuse scrap paper, switch to digital invoices and so on.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.