Things You'll Need:
- a desire to reduce paper waste
- planning and preparation
- Step 1landfillAn estimated seven trees are cut down. per person, per year in the United States to provide the amount of paper that person uses in one year.
If someone suggested to me that I should cut down seven perfectly good trees and then proceed to waste most of the products of those seven trees, I would be horrified. And yet that is exactly what we do through our excessive and wasteful use of paper.
Landfills are clogged with paper waste that could easily be recycled, and there is no good reason for all this discarded paper. Recycling programs are in place in most cities, businesses, schools, and hospitals, etc. All we have to do is use the paper recycling bins at our disposal.
One excellent way to cut way down on household paper waste is to get off those junk mail lists. Junk mail is not as innocent as it may seem.
100 million trees per year are being cut down, ground up, and used to make junk mail and 28 million gallons of water is also being used annually to make this junk mail. The US has an estimated 4.6 million tons of junk mail per year. Junk mail that is unwanted, often unread, and then thrown in the trash, where it clogs up already full landfills even further.
It is estimated that nearly 50% of all junk mail is not recycled, but is thrown in the trash. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why, when we are losing our forests at an alarming rate, are we still allowing them to be cut down to produce junk mail we don't even want?
See the resources list below for ways to get off of those junk mail lists.
- Step 2cutting treesTelephone books are another huge waste of paper. To be more eco-friendly, you can request not to receive a telephone book at all, (look addresses and phone numbers up online), you can recycle any old telephone books that you have, and you can request that your telephone company uses only recycled paper and other eco-friendly practices in producing your telephone book.
Similiarly newspapers and magazine subscriptions are often a tremendous waste of paper. How many times have you received a newspaper, never even read it, and then thrown it in the trash? Even once is too much in these times.
Instead, why not go online and read the newspaper that way? Or read the newspaper and your favorite magazines at your local library. Many libraries have a place where you can pick up free magazines, and they are often that months issue too.
- Step 3reduce reuse recycleMore tips to reduce paper waste:
Avoid excessive packaging at the store, buying in bulk when feasible. Use cloth napkins and cloth towels instead of paper towels in your kitchen. Reuse gift bags and gift wrap, or use an alternative wrapping like a pretty scarf or a basket instead.
When printing anything, use both sides of the paper, unless it is something that you just can't for some reason.
Don't waste writing paper, envelopes, etc. either. Use both sides, and recycle as much of it as you can.
Christmas means a huge amount of gift wrap thrown in the landfill every year. Do your part to cut way down on this. Reuse all gift bags and wraps, recycle what you can, and use alternatives to paper gift wrapping whenever possible. See the resources section below for some alternative gift wrapping ideas.
- Step 4Christmas gift wrap wasteLast, but far from least, plant some trees each year to replace those being lost through these and other wasteful practices. Join a reforestation project in your area, or support one somewhere else in the world.
It is a good idea to help plant trees in countries like Haiti, which has less than 2% of its native tree cover left, according to estimates. Cutting down all those trees leads to ecological and financial disaster, and great human suffering as a result. This practice needs to be reversed by planting as many trees as possible. Your donation to a program working to reforest Haiti, or some other country, is sorely needed.
Plant trees locally if you prefer. Seven trees, at least, to replace those used every year by each person in the US. The earth needs those trees to be replaced. Your children and grandchildren will thank you.
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