We are presently thriving in the prime period of the technical era. Most of us own smartphones, smart TVs, laptops, along with other digital devices. However, despite such technological advances, there has been no reduction in the paper wastage segment. In fact, on the contrary, paper waste has increased. Sounds odd right?

But we have reports! As per India’s Audit Bureau of Circulation, there has been an increase in the annual newspaper and magazine sales from 40 million in 2006 to nearly 63 million in 2016. The simple reason is that many of us still prefer the hard copy of books, magazines, newspapers over the e-copy or the kindle version.

An average office employee uses 10,000 sheets a year. This is indeed a huge amount from individual perse. You can imagine the number to be in high figures if we combine the paper usage of all the average working citizens in India. Also what is often ignored is the number of trees which will be cut down to meet this demand. Even at our homes, we take various subscriptions, and seldom do we sit and read those journals or magazines. Eventually, the bundle is sold off to a raddiwala in lieu of money. A loss of money, time, efforts, knowledge, and indeed paper!

Paper wastage has a lot of repercussions:

    1. Financially expensive: Not just in terms of buying paper but also the cost of printers, ink, electricity, paper production, etc.

    2. Environmental hazard: To meet the increasing paper demand:

• Deforestation happens at bulk levels
• A huge amount of electricity and water is used
• The process of paper manufacturing also contributes to pollution
• Overall, it adds up to the waste

Did you know?

• 432 litres of water is used to produce a kilogram of paper
• 93% of the paper we use comes from trees
• 10 litres of water is required to one sheet of A4 paper
• All the thriving businesses dispose of 50% of paper as waste
• If we recycle a ton of paper, it would save 26,500 litres of water and 17 trees
• 1 tree produces enough oxygen for 3 people to breathe

Hence, being a consumer, it is our responsibility to act wisely and take the correct decisions. However, we often do so selfishly in our favor. Instead of thinking about the environment, we are concerned about our convenience.

We at GoGreenSurvey are considerate about the environment. In order to take a step to protect the environment, we initiated the propagation and promotion of the use of digital surveys and feedback forms over the paper. This is one of the few causes that we support. The others are:

• Evolving ourselves to save the environment and imbibing the approach that every decision we take should be in favor of the environment
• Create greenery by planting plants both inside the homes as well as outside
• Use green products that are bio-degradable and environment friendly
• Recycle goods so there is reduced wastage

Some of the simple ways by which you can reduce paper wastage are:

• Use the paper wisely
• Use both sides of the paper
• Opt for recycled paper, chlorine-free paper, and other alternatives like bamboo paper
• Shift to the digital use that is use email or technology wherever possible
• Opt-out of unnecessary subscriptions
• Conducting paper audits at home and workplace
• Follow recycling practices

By the time you will read this, more than 411,189,200 tons of paper would have been produced and more than 27,402,817.50 hectares of forests would have been cut down or burnt to produce the paper in the year 2020.

As per the report of world counts, from 2010 to 2060, the global consumption of pulp and paper is expected to double. The same will the amount of paper waste. Even though there have been various recycling efforts, the Indian recycling industry needs nearly 14 million tonnes of waste paper to meet current demands. (as per BBC story). The bright side is that India is the world leader in waste paper recycling.

Our one decision of preferring the digital version over the hard copy paper wherever possible can help in reducing paper wastage at a mass level. We can continue being the counted as one of the top recycling paper countries if we make efforts in the right direction. It would help not only in saving trees but would protect our environment from further damage and ensure our survival too.

Now is the best time to leverage the technology in the best possible manner and use it to save our environment and us. We can turn the tables by using tech rather than letting it use us. One tree saved could save the lives of three living beings, reduce paper wastage, and help safeguard our mother nature too! The impact when we all will join hands to do so would definitely boost environmental protection and conservation activities.

Saving one tree today or losing three lives tomorrow!

Wise use and opting for digital alternatives today or worsened condition of the environment tomorrow!

Click here if you wish to Save the environment and would opt to use Digital Surveys and Feedback Forms!

Reference Links:

https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/paper-waste-facts

https://www.earthshare.org/shortening-the/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46641059