Paper Reduction and Reuse

Boxboard, cardboard, magazines, office paper, tissue paper, newspaper, gift wrap... Paper is everywhere. While we have not achieved the paperless offices/homes predicted in the early '70s, there are many things we can do to get us closer to the zero paper waste goal.

Of course the first and best step is reduction (it's not the first R for nothing!). Use electronic options to reduce paper—email, electronic banking, electronic tax filing, etc. Subscribe to electronic, rather than paper, clipping services. Of course these options don't reduce paper if you automatically make a hard copy of every transaction—print only those items you will use again or that require a paper record.

Reducing junk mail will also cut down on paper. Put up a 'no flyers' sign on your mailbox if you get home delivery. If you have a box, let your postmaster know you don't want unaddressed mail. Contact the Canadian Marketing Association ( or 1 Concorde Gate, Suite 607, Don Mills, ON M3C 3N6) to add your name to those who don't want junk mail.

Paper reuse opportunities abound. If we can think about paper with one side clean as a resource rather than as something to be recycled, we can make less paper do more work for us. Used paper can be put in fax machines, in printers for draft copies, and in photocopiers for internal copies. Used paper also makes great notepads and scrap paper. You can reuse large envelopes by covering the original address with a new label. And of course boxes can be reused for all sorts of functions. Substitute durable items like cloth towels and hankies for paper towels and facial tissue.

Dedicated paper reducers can achieve significant results with these methods. Once reduction and reuse have been max-ed out, then you can go for the third—best option—recycle!

(Source: June 2001 WasteWatch)

Cut down paper, not trees

Reduce, reduce, reduce … any time you can prevent paper from being used in the first place, you are conserving all the resources it takes to create the paper and the resources it would take to recycle it.

Here are a few tips to reduce paper use in your homes and offices:

• Avoid printing electronic files when you can. Read your emails onscreen and electronically file the ones you need to keep.
• Circulate documents electronically. PDF has become the standard format for files transferred electronically. Everyone with a computer can read them.
• Preview before printing — this is like the carpentry adage “measure twice, cut once”. Fix your typos so that you don’t have to re-print.
• Switch to receiving and paying bills online where you can.
• Cut down on junk mail. Register with the Canadian Marketing Association to remove your name from direct mail lists. You have to do this every three years.
• Choose to view online or electronic versions of your favourite catalogues rather than paper copies.
• Print only what you need. If you absolutely have to print something from the internet, you can select which pages you want prior to printing.
• Make a word processing template of your letterhead so that you can send letters electronically.
• Where possible, fax digitally rather than with paper.
• Look for paper alternatives — use a white board or chalk board for messages, instead of notepaper.
• Consider getting newspaper and magazine subscriptions in electronic form — not everyone is ready to get their news this way, but most publications have a trial option, so that you can see if it might work for you.

When you’ve run through all the things you can to actually reduce paper, then it’s time to consider re-use and efficiency. Paper efficiency is much like energy efficiency. A more efficient car needs less gas to go the same distance as a less efficient car. However, just as energy efficiency is not about "freezing in the dark," improving paper efficiency does not mean losing any of the wanted information on the paper.

Tips for paper efficiency:

• Print on both sides of the paper whenever you can. (Alternatively, put used paper with one side clean into your printer or photocopier).
• If you have trouble proofreading documents on a computer screen, print your draft documents on used paper with one side clean.
• Reduce the size of images and put more of them per page. Not only will it save paper, but it will also save on ink cartridges.
• Reformat your documents to reduce the size of the margins. There is a “Small Margin Movement” which aims to get the standard margins in Word reduced from 1.25 ″ to .75”, resulting in about 1.14 trees saved for each ton of paper used for printing (see www.changethemargins.com).
• Make notepads from scrap paper. (Make sure to recycle the notes when you are through with them).

If we treat paper like a precious resource, then we are also valuing the trees (and the water, energy and air) that it is made from.

(Source: Feb. 2008 WasteWatch)

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