If you’ve ever looked in the trash can or recycling bins at many offices and industries, you’ll probably find a ton of paper. Paper is the most common waste products at most places, and thus the biggest sustainable opportunities many small scale industries may have.
The concept of an office without paper is somewhat of a hypothetical, but what most organizations could do is reduce their paper wastage by automating transactional business processes that rely on paper. Digitizing and automating document exchange can allow companies to become more efficient, while helping the environment simultaneously. Cutting down on paper waste isn’t easy because paper itself is relatively cheap, so business owners may feel less economical to reduce it. Moreover, it’s hard to change perception that paper use has little environmental impact. But recycling one ton of paper saves 20 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 30 kgs of air pollutants, and saves enough energy to power the middle class home for many months? If every office and shopping malls replaced just one roll of paper towel with recycled paper towel, we would save more than 5,00,000 trees. Reducing our dependence on paper saves valuable natural resources, reduces air and water pollution and saves energy.
Online fax is eco-friendly and as an environmental protection is a big priority for organizations today. Internet fax helps companies be more environmentally conscious and save money too. They also transfer their older stored documents into a digital format by scanning. Those institutes that do not have electronic systems should be encouraged to scan their documents into an electronic format so that the data is secure and accessible and this also frees up storage space reducing rentals, rates, insurance and retrieval charges. Once the documents have been scanned they can be recycled which will save trees and resources while ultimately benefitting the environment. Offer incentives for people to scan their documents as opposed to storing them. Use printers and xerox machine that allow for double-sided printing and copy. You can reduce the amount of paper used by printing documents on both sides of paper. Some laser printers offer double-sided or “duplex” printing as a standard feature so you can easily set it up through your computer’s printer option features as the default mode.
Cut down on junk mail. Junk mail accounts for a huge amount of unnecessary paper waste. More businesses that traditionally rely on lots of paper for transactional purposes should find ways to reduce it. Mortgage lenders should put loan documents on jump drives and allow electronic signatures to avoid printing out dozens of pages or make PDFs of documents they want to save electronically rather than printing them out. While buying paper products for your business, look for paper with a high post-consumer recycled content, such as 60% or even 100 %. This greatly reduces the number of trees cut down, quantity of water used and amount of carbon dioxide emitted to make that paper. The issue is not just restricted to office paper. To print a weekly edition of the Sunday Times consumes an estimated 37,500 trees. Reduce the amount of paper coming into your home or office by signing up for electronic statements and bills. Read newspapers and work documents online. In addition, reuse the paper you currently have by creating a scrap drawer. Reuse newspaper for wrapping paper and packing material. Ideally, any paper that you want to discard should be recycled, or if you have a compost bin, shred it and add it there.
In the work environment, if your boss has not yet conducted a recycling program, inquire and offer to help organize one. Place a paper bin next to every trash can, and make sure the bins are emptied regularly to avoid overflow and discouraging co-workers from using it. Use tissue paper products that are produced out of recycled paper waste, wood , bamboo etc. that are eco-friendly. Reduce prepackaged condiment waste and napkins at fast food restaurants by not taking more than you need.
Many times read books and magazines made by traditional methods that are kept for long time in libraries and bookstalls that go waste. Sometimes books and magazines are produced but remain unsold also go to waste. Printing was a wasteful process as traditional high volume printing methods meant that more paper, ink and energy was used than necessary. Now a days, specialist digital printers use highly efficient printing presses to minimize waste and help protect the environment. Also paper recycling machine can be used to process waste books, waste newspapers, waste cartons and kinds of other type papers. It can produce tissue paper, corrugated paper, culture paper, egg tray etc. Paper has an effect on the environment where raw materials are mined and processed and also on waste disposal. In addition to trees being lost, the conversion from pulp to paper involves the extraction of raw materials such as water, oil, gas and coal. Recycling paper involves water and power but not in the same quantities as for the conversion from wood pulp to paper.
Support the recycling process by buying recycled paper products. If everyone who recycles also buys recycled products, then the sustainability of recycling is guaranteed. Next time look for alternatives made from recycled paper. This includes common items such as paper for your computer printer, cards and even paper towels and toilet paper. Reducing the amount of paper in garbage sites can be done by reducing the amount of paper you use, as well as reusing that paper. Ultimately you'll need to discard paper and when that time comes, choose to recycle it for the good of the environment. Packaging materials received in mills like plastics, cardboard or wood should be sorted and recycled and sludge from deinking process should be reused to make building products like cement, stones and building panels, or reused as raw material to develop roads or as a fertilizer to specific crops fields.
We might see paper as disposable but our attitudes will have to change. Paper production has serious effects on the environment, with CO2 emissions increasing, resources connected to energy becoming depleted, and tonnes of waste being driven into landfill. It is important for us to change our behavior and start recycling, reducing, and reusing the paper we use.
