Friday 9 November 2007

Be more paperless

Take a minute to look around the room you're in and notice how many things are made out of paper. There may be books, a few magazines, some printer paper, and perhaps a poster on the wall. Yet, if you consider that each person in the United States uses 749 pounds of paper every year (adding up to a whopping 187 billion pounds per year for the entire population, by far the largest per capita consumption rate of paper for any country in the world), then you realize that paper comes in many more forms than meets the eye.

The fact is, world consumption of paper has grown four hundred percent in the last 40 years. Now nearly 4 billion trees or 35% of the total trees cut around the world are used in paper industries on every continent. Besides what you can see around you, paper comes in many forms from tissue paper to cardboard packaging to stereo speakers to electrical plugs to home insulation to the sole inserts in your tennis shoes. In short, paper is everywhere.

More on http://www.ecology.com/feature-stories/paper-chase/index.html

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