How to slash your eco footprint by reducing paper use

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I'm a paper person. I love reading newspapers, magazines and books, and writing in notebooks, and I'm surrounded by shelves of paper in files.

I have no idea how much paper I consume but I was interested to hear that the average Australian government employee uses 9300 sheets of paper per year and Australians generally use 1.5 million tonnes of printing and writing paper each year (1.2 million tonnes is imported), according to the environmental activist group Do Something, which runs the website savepaper.com.au.

It says this amounts to some 36 million trees.

reducing paper use waste recycling

But it's not just the trees. Producing paper generates 2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, and 18 million empty printing cartridges are estimated to go to landfill annually.

I'm trying to cut my paper use, not only to save money (if I was buying ultra-white paper from the supermarket for $6 for 500 sheets, the cost would be $111) and help the environment, but because organising paper is time-consuming and takes up valuable space.

I feel as if I'm fighting a losing battle with paper. It keeps coming in the mail and piling up.

I use a kindle e-book reader, receive many bills electronically and keep more digital files in computer Cloud. I recycle at home and work.

But I need to do more: put a "No Junk Mail" sign on my letterbox and stop addressed mail advertising by signing up to the free Do Not Mail program at the Australian Direct Marketing Association. (Send your details with your address to [email protected].)

It is impossible, of course, not to use some paper. Thankfully, there are plenty of recycling bins from councils, schools and workplaces to make it easy to reuse paper and cardboard.

Recycling your paper and buying recycled paper (it is typically more expensive) helps save trees, water, electricity and oil as well as reducing landfill and greenhouse emissions.

Berlin architects have even achieved a building made of compressed recycled paper.

Recycled paper consumes up to 60% less water and 50% less energy, Do Something says. One tonne of recycled paper can save up to 31,780 litres of water, 4100kw/h of electricity, 13 trees, 27 kilograms of air pollutants, five cubic metres of landfill and 2 and a half barrels of oil.

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Susan has been a finance journalist for more than 30 years, beginning at the Australian Financial Review before moving to the Sydney Morning Herald. She edited a superannuation magazine, Superfunds, for the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, and writes regularly on superannuation and managed funds. She's also author of the best-selling book Women and Money.