The Problem with Paper

Posted on 20. Dec, 2010 by LaymanHarang in Sustainability

It’s easy, simple, cheap and we all use it. In fact it is everywhere. So what is the big deal with paper? The problem is the scale. Last year, according to the EPA, http://www.epa.gov/ne/green/paperuse.html the United States used 100 million tons of the stuff and for all of the talk about recycling, paper and its derivates currently constitutes the largest component in our landfills. 34% of what we throw away is paper. The question is why. Is it the lack of alternate solutions? Not hardly. Technical solutions are numerous and readily available. The entire Library of Congress is available on line. Is it the cost? No again. Migrating to paperless formats has been proven time and time again to save money, a lot of money.

So what is the problem? Why is our consumption of paper going up, not down? In a world where we stay in touch via social media, texting and 24/7 global cell phones, we are addicted to the stuff. The problem is us. We get an important email and what do we do? We print the thing so that we can save it. An important document comes into the office and what is the first thing that happens? Someone ask for 10 copies. We show up at a staff meeting and everyone walks into the room with a copy of the agenda. We don’t need the agenda, but we print it anyway. We do it because we can. We do it because it is cheap. We do it because we feel important carrying the stuff down the hallway. We utilize 21 century technology to communicate and then we rely (?) on something that dates to 2nd century for safe keeping. As ridiculous as it sounds, with all the gadgets and wiz bang methods of communicating, we are stuck on 1800 year old “technology” for storage. And we are stuck here at the determent of the planet and our bottom lines.

So what to do? First – Stop the madness. You really don’t need 10 or 5 or even 2 copies of everything. Second – get some help. There are technologies and processes that can be employed that can help virtually any business become paperless or at least less paper dependant. The challenge is in making the decision to begin. The good news is that business all over town have begun and are succeeding and you can too.