Living Green - Paper Products

Paper products are used all the time in our society and that means more trees are being cut down to keep up with that demand. The trees live off the carbon dioxide that is in the air we breathe. The carbon dioxide is exchanged for oxygen. As the number of trees becomes depleted, more carbon dioxide will remain in the air we breathe.

There are many ways in which you can cut back on the use of paper both at home and at work. If you get a ton of junk mail each week it can become a chore to weed through all of it. Go online and sign up to opt out of receiving it. That way the amount of paper waste in your home will be reduced by about 1/3 without your having to do much about it.

Find out which of your bills and accounts you can get an online statement for. This way you further reduce the amount of paper that comes your way. Log on each month and find out what you owe as well as checking over your statements. If necessary print out only what information you do need instead of the entire statement.

You can also pay bills online which will save writing paper cheques and envelopes. It only takes a few minutes to set up these accounts and then you can do the same each month. If you don’t want to mess with that each month then have the bills taken directly out of your checking account. The fact that this is so convenient is also a terrific benefit that you will certainly want to take advantage of

Try to buy only notebooks, greeting cards, and other products that you see have been made from recycled paper. You can even use napkins and paper towels that have been recycled. Keeping dish cloths and tea towels in your kitchen is also a great way to reduce the use of paper towels.

Encourage everyone at your office to cut back on the use of paper whenever they can. In fact, you should talk to your boss about implementing some eco-effective ideas. For example there can be a pile for waste paper that everyone can use for various needs. The back sides of the waste paper can be used to take down phone messages and other correspondence that doesn’t have to look professional.

With reports, make sure information is printed on both sides of the paper. It will still look very professional and it will cut the amount of paper used for the process in half. It is important to double check the information you plan to print as well prior to printing it so you don’t view it, see a mistake, and then have to print it again.