In the United States, 8 billion pounds of copy paper was used last year and the number continues to grow with each passing year.
Last year, my work facility used 296,520 pounds of copy paper, contributing 0.26% to the national paper use average. Converting that number into trees used comes to 371 per year, or 31 trees per month.
What do those huge numbers mean to us individually? On average, each of us here at my work facility used 15,128 sheets, or 212 pounds of paper last year. That’s 41 sheets of paper per person each day.
Okay, now read that again. Soak it in.
Usage Period # of Cases # of Sheets Cost
One Time 1 5,000 $36.50
Per Day 12 60,000 $438.00
Per Month 353 1,765,000 $12,884.50
Per Year 4,236 21,180,000 $154,614.00
Copy paper consumes 14M trees and almost $6B. So, if you extend that out to paper towels, toilet paper, Kleenex, and such, that is astronomical. So, do your environment a favor, and find a way to help save a tree.
our parish priest thinks not buying consumable workbooks (which are usually made of recycled paper) saves money for us, but never considers the amount of toner and paper wasted in order to make ad-hoc workbooks for the primary age kids to use. i think the year i had 26 kids i used THREE cases of copy paper. i so wanted to say to him, "DUDE, little kids cant write on looseleaf yet, bite the bullet and buy some damn workbooks for chrissake!"
ReplyDeletexxalainaxx
At the lab, most of us would try to reuse old reports by crossing through the old side and printing on the flip side. Here at home, we recycle all the junk mail and envelopes and old printouts. Maybe it's a drop in the bucket, but I'm a firm believer in every little bit helps!
ReplyDeleteConsidering our frequent sinus problems, one area we fail in is our excessive Kleenex usage! LOL
I hate to see these statistics. I always print double side and encourage everyone at work to do so as well. It is so sad to think that many trees die. I do buy all recycled paper goods for the house. :)
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