We do use paper everyday in one form or the other from newspapers which have classified information to tissue papers we use it everywhere. After using paper what happens to it? It either goes into a landfill or is burnt off. Very few people give it for recycling.

Paper is produced from trees, so using paper products in this e-age is a prime issue of concern. Obviously we need more trees which are our source of oxygen, than we need the paper. By using paper we are even putting the survival of other animals in jeopardy. So, why no cut your paper work. Let’s keep our earth clean and sustainable for our future generations!

Moreover paper can be recycled only 5-6 times on an average. There are not even enough landfills to discard them. Brown covers used as package wrappers, shredded paper used in delivery boxes, corrugated packaging in food industry, cardboard boards, cigarette wrappings, paper bags, paper envelopes are all some of the paper products used. Here, I am going to look into classic examples of paper waste :

10.Receipts and paper bills

“Waste paper is a forest “-  says a richest Chineese women, Cheung who is called the queen of trash in china. Shredded trimmings of  paper, receipts and bills which we hardly look at once and throw them away or dump them in our handbags and wallets. Obviously no would accept it if they are not given a paper bill when they buy any item in a shopping mall. Electricity bills, water bills, gas bills and other bills to pay are a one time use to create accountability. There needs to be better use of technology than paper in these issues to avoid wastage of paper.

9. paper plates

According to an environmental policy – extended producer responsibility (EPR), a decreased environmental impact is to be achieved by making the manufacturer responsible for the entire life cycle of the product even for recycling it. Be it  birthday parties, marriages or political party meetings , paper plates are an easy use and throw stuff. You don’t need to wash them and can dispose them right away. The magnitude of their usage given the so many festivals and special occasions every year accounts for wastage of lots of paper.

8. note books

Teachers give a lot of notes to their students. The notes are much more as the you go to higher classes. Yes, its true that writing practice is importance to fare well in exams. But the same notes is written by every student of the 30-40 in the class and 400-450 in all the sections, thousands of students in one school , lakhs of students in a country, millions of students all around the world every year and revision of it multiple times in assignments. If  this goes for a few decades all the trees on the earth would be cut down. Instead people should shift to e-learning techniques and oral mode of teaching and learning as in olden days, because there were brilliant learned people even in the olden days when there was no paper.

7. magazines

Magazines do give us a lot of information, keep us updated on current affairs, give us a new perspective on many issues concerning various aspects of society. Business magazines – Business today, business today, economic times, fashion magazines, India today, frontline, government schemes magazines – Yojana, Kurushetra, cinema gossip magazines etc all have an e-paper version too. So, why not shift to a more cost effective and eco friendly way.

6. newspapers

As the famous adage goes “today’s news is tomorrow’s trash”, the newspapers we read today are no longer useful tomorrow. So, an American company Toshiba amercian business solutions wanted to launch a campaign to bring a no-printing day into action. But most printing companies took it as offensive for it is going to hamper their paper business and is much suggesting towards use of laptops, internet and other technology instead of newspapers. And so the campaign couldn’t be organised. Do you think such an attitude towards paper usage is going to help man kind? This is definitely a classic example of paper waste 40,000 trees everyday. To reduce this wastage some effective ways would be recycling paper than dumping it in landfills, as it cannot grow back into a tree and would be perfectly useless otherwise.

5. paper cups

All of us drink cool drinks and other beverages when we go to Mc Donalds, subway, Dominos, Cafe coffee day or any other served in paper cups. They are crushed and thrown away. They litter our roads, beaches and cars too. Function halls, coffee stalls and at times even at home we use paper cups. 1.6 billion coffee cups are used every year .Equivalent to 650,000 trees cut every year. To avoid this we can switch to reusable cups.

4. bakery cake and pizza boxes

The cakes, pastries, chaand biscuits, pizzas, burgers what ever you order are packed in paper boxes of a tougher texture. Muffin wrappers, Frankie wrapping tissues are also made of paper. There are two problems in disguise – obesity for the people eating all those foods and wastage of paper. These cardboard boxes are later purged off in the garbage bins.

3. currency

Most countries like India have paper currency or a composition of paper as currency. For a population as large as in India and having issues like current account deficit, subsidies for socially and educationally backward castes(SEBC) and monetary support from world bank & IMF, lots of currency is printed every day.  Forget about the black money(wink). So, in order to reduce paper waste countries have to shift from paper currency to e-currency like bitcoin. Ofcourse this is more feasible only when all the population has access to mobile phones and internet.  This would call for removal of poverty and no more beggars.

2. hard copy of documents

People take a copy of stuff they read online, notes posted in groups – if it is so inevitable take it double side and save trees and environment.  Post offices, schools, software companies, political party offices, banks, hospitals, airports and other Government offices all have a habit of keeping even a hard copy of things when they have a softcopy already. These documents are a waste of lot of paper. The way organisations work, has to change as per the generation, making things much more easier and quicker. Why not go digital – read, send and store digital documents and save paper. Next time you impatiently click on the print icon, do remember you are wasting a lot paper!!!

1.charts

Most schools use charts to teach their students. They ask their students to do some project work on various issues in the subjects and put them on walls of the class room. This trend goes on every year with every batch having to do the same project or same charts again and again. There is a lot of paper waste involved in this. Also many employees of business organisations explain their business plans, blue prints in charts. Almost all engineering students use charts for engineering and machine assembly drawings. Automobile companies use it for component design drawings. All these are a sheer waste of paper especially when we have computers and technologies like computer aided designing.