Be Environmentally Friendly: Save Paper
Submitted by
Deva Dalporto
The average American uses seven trees worth of paper products each year. That's a whopping 2 billion trees a year just from the good ol' USA alone! But it doesn't have to be this way. If you want to be environmentally friendly and cut down your paper footprint, there are easy steps you can take to save paper.
- Use recycled paper products! When you use recycled paper, you save trees. And as we know, trees help the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. An acre of trees absorbs enough per year to equal the amount of carbon dioxide created by driving a car 26,000 miles! That's a lotta trips to grandma's!
- Bring reusable, environmentally friendly bags to the grocery store. A tree can only make 700 grocery bags. Sounds like a lot, but your average grocer blows through that many in an hour or less. So make sure you grab your own totes the next time you go shopping!
- Use reusable cutlery, plates and cloth napkins and skip the paper stuff. Not only do cloth napkins help save the environment by cutting down on paper waste, they help kids learn proper table etiquette. Score! If you do use paper dinner products, go for the environmentally friendly, biodegradable stuff!
- Get digital versions of your favorite books and media! Invest in a digital reader and get e-books. And subscribe to your favorite newspapers and magazines online rather than getting the physical thing.
- Pay bills online! Not only is it environmentally friendly, it'll save you money on stamps! Ka-ching!
- Cancel any catalogs you get that you don't want. Don't have time to make a zillion calls? No prob! Log on to Catalog Choice, where you can opt out of receiving those annoying catalogs just by clicking a few buttons.
- Reuse and recycle! If you do happen to bring home some paper bags from the grocery store, reuse them as trash bags or wrapping paper. Turn old bills into scrap paper. Reuse newspapers as packing materials instead of those dreaded Styrofoam peanuts.
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