How to reduce paper consumption

The house including At the office. When we're grocery shopping or going to the bar. While traveling or taking a break. We consume too much letter, and with this we damage the environment twice. By contributing to the destruction of the trees from which the letter it is obtained, and by polluting. Double waste.

Thirty-two sheets of paper every day for every Italian. We still print too much paper, despite the military advance of everything that runs electronically and does not produce waste of such a delicate material both for the origin of the raw material (the trees) and for the potential pollution it causes (just look at a garbage can and see how much paper waste it contains).

How to reduce paper consumption

Not wasting paper is truly a simple gesture, and one everyone can do. Every day. With a little bit of care (does reading emails on your desktop and not printing them unless absolutely necessary seem so complicated to you?) and with a few assumptions tied to the goal of a more sustainable world. This also comes from our small daily actions. The assumptions we're talking about are three in particular. The first: Italians still consume too much paper, 200 kilograms per capita per year, the equivalent of 80 reams of A4 paper. Second assumption: A family of 4 uses the equivalent of 2 trees in paper per year. Don't they seem like a lot, too much? And don't you see the enormous waste on a planet that needs, like oxygen, more trees, and not the other way around? Third premise: let's remember that, in addition to trees, paper needs water to reach our desks, and then promptly into the wastebaskets. And quite a lot of it. To produce one ton of white paper, 440 liters of water are needed. water. So, wasting less paper automatically means saving trees and water. A truly important contribution to the stressed natural ecosystem and to sustainability as a daily lifestyle.

But let's take a closer look at the winning gestures, the small daily steps to avoid paper waste with our ten commandments. Simply.

• Print as little as possible

It's important to limit the number of sheets, documents, and texts you print. How? Simply save what you need to an external storage device, your PC, your folder, a dedicated cloud service, or a USB stick. For those accustomed to using electronic technology, these are really basic steps. They'll allow you to always have the content with you and edit it at any time, avoiding further waste of paper. And time. Furthermore, we avoid printing documents that can be viewed on video: for example, requesting to receive bills online saves around 300 grams of paper at a time and you don't pay to send the document.

• Prefer double-sided printing

Format your files to take up as little space as possible (removing photos if they're not needed). Before printing, always double-sided, preview the document to make sure everything is as you want it, and read it carefully to avoid incorrect prints.

• Recycling

We carefully place recycling bins near printers and make sure other types of waste don't end up there. At home, we flatten all paper waste. Reducing its volume makes it easier to separate. Furthermore, we break the habit of accumulating newspapers and magazines, preferring to throw them in the recycling bin as soon as they're read, to develop a good, eco-friendly habit. Otherwise, we can reuse newspapers, as we've explained on the Non sprecare website, for various household tasks and functions. Wrapping objects, cleaning windows, or stuffing them in shoes, crumpled up, during the change of seasons.

• Beware of automatic gestures

Paying attention to how much paper we use in everyday life and in all situations is a useful trick: let's stop using automatic actions. In public bathrooms, for example, let's not use too many paper towels to dry our hands. Instead, shake them well to shake off all the water and fold the tissue several times to better absorb it. This also applies at home, where it's preferable to use cloth rags or dishcloths rather than paper towel rolls.

• More recycled paper

While it's best to avoid doing so, if you absolutely must print, it's best to use recycled paper. There are various types available on the market, with varying shades of white. We should also try to purchase products made from recycled paper. Whether they're notebooks, books, photocopy paper, or cardboard packaging, buy recycled paper products However, it is a form of savings and a way to reduce waste.

• Better the fabric

Choose cloth tissues and napkins over paper ones. The same rule applies to all other disposable paper products: using reusable products is also environmentally friendly.

An example? We can reuse mail envelopes for home use (for example, to store coupons or receipts). In the office, use them for internal mail.

• Avoid packaging

• Awareness raising

In office and at home, we try to make others aware of the problem of paper waste and the proper use of paper ream and printer. Or of reuse.

• Use the sheets multiple times

We try to use both sides of the paper as much as possible. If desired, we can make small notepads by stapling the pages to the side where writing has already been done, or leave them near the phone as emergency pads.

• Replace mail with email

It happens to everyone that their mailbox is overrun with advertising material. This means waste and unnecessary paper. It's better to write a standard message on the mailbox (for example, "No advertising") to warn those who distribute flyers, or ask your contacts to contact you by email and not a paper letter.

Why it's important to reduce paper consumption

It's important reduce paper consumption, ultimately, for at least three good reasons. The first: it means protect the trees, one of the fundamental barriers against climate crisisLess paper is a contribution to counteracting the changes underway. Second: less paper means less expense, and therefore savings for families. Third: less paper also translates into less waste, less garbage to collect, even in the wrong places (streets, gardens and sidewalks).

Paper and carbon

Read also:

• Tap Shops: Where to Find Them in Every Region
• Overwhelmed by waste, now let's cut down on the garbage we produce. In 10 steps.
• Zero waste, we can do it. In the meantime, let's start reducing it, all of it.