Save Money, Save Paper

On the paper trail

World paper consumption continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

What’s driving this upwards trend? Rising industrialisation, promotion of consumption, ever-increasing speed of communication, falling costs of paper, as well as careless use of paper through an ethic of disposability Even where electronic communications offers paper-free alternatives, consumption continues.

Today, 10% of the world’s population, including Western Europe and North America, consume over half of the world’s paper; more than six times the world average. Consumption in Europe alone has increased six-fold since 1950.

Stop wasteful paper consumption
There is an urgent need to change our consumption patterns. Some 10,000 sheets of paper are used each year by your average office worker in western industrialized countries. For each sheet of paper used, you incur not only purchasing costs, but also storage, copying, printing, labour, postage, disposal and recycling costs.

But there is good news. Reductions of 20-30% of current paper use in most offices are possible.

Here is what you can do:
• Print documents ONLY when absolutely necessary
• Print 2-sided whenever possible
• Proof new documents on screen before printing
• Use electronic filing systems rather than paper
• Recycle all used paper and paper products
• Implement a paper efficiency programme in your office