Thursday 3 April 2014

10 Easy Tips for Reducing Your Daily Paper Waste


10 Easy Tips for Reducing Your Daily Paper Waste

People often forget how often they encounter paper and paper products during the day—this includes books, newspapers, toilet paper, cereal boxes, the labels on water bottles, catalogs, junk mail, money, parking tickets, receipts, napkins, and the list goes on. Consuming more than any other country per capita, the average American uses more than 700 lbs of paper per year.
The following are a few important facts about the paper companies and the paper industry you should take into consideration before buying or using any paper products.
Did you know that forests store approximately half of the earth’s “terrestrial carbon”? These carbon rich forests counter the pollution that causes global warming.
Unfortunately, half of the earth’s existing forests have been used up, cleared, or burned—more than half of what’s left is severely degraded.
Each year, a massive amount of wood is harvested for consumption—approximately 40% of this wood is used for papermaking.
Used paper makes up approximately 25% of all landfill waste.
Paper companies in the United States (and the paper industry) are the 4th largest contributor of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
If office paper use was reduced by 10%, approximately 1.5 million tons of greenhouse gases could be prevented. That’s equivalent to the emissions of 280,000 cars.
Why choose recycle paper? Compared to processing virgin wood, recycled paper uses 45% less energy, 40% less greenhouse gas emissions, 40% less particulate emissions, 50% less solid waste, 50% less wastewater, and no natural resources or wood.

In previous years, less than half the amount of used office paper (43%) was recycled.
The following are easy tips for saving or reusing paper brought to you by a recycled paper company.
1. Be a “post-consumer” consumer—buy recycled paper, recycle paper products (i.e. toilet paper, paper towels) and avoid purchasing any goods or products made from virgin wood.
2. Don’t buy paper table napkins—cloth is a more environmentally friendly choice.
3. Don’t use Styrofoam peanuts for packaging.Shred used office paper and use that as an alternative.
4. Use dish towels regularly, not paper towels.

5. Change your computer settings before printing any documents—print to both sides to save paper.
6. Paying bills online is not only more convenient, it saves paper. Take advantage of your car insurance, cable company, rent, health insurance, and other “ecobill” options.
7. If you bring your lunch to work in a paper bag, reuse it!Better yet, opt for a cloth bag you can reuse and wash time and time again.
8. If you have a pooch, purchase biodegradable doggie bags.
9. Buy all desk planners, wall calendars, and paper office supplies from a recycled paper company.
10. Paper or plastic? Say no to both at the grocery store. Purchase a reusable cloth bag and use that for carrying groceries home.

Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Greenline Paper Company, America’s green office supply store. Visit our website for more information on environmentally friendly office supplies, paper company products, and recycle paper at Greenlinepaper.com.
POSTED BY GREEN LINE PAPER COMPANY AT 10:47 PM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: OFFICE, OFFICE PAPER, OFFICE SUPPLY, PAPER, RECYCLE, RECYCLED, RECYCLED PAPER, RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS, SALE, SALES
Green Holiday Gift Ideas: 5 Inexpensive, Creative, and Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas for Friends and Family
The following holiday gift ideas are not only thoughtful, they’re quality, inexpensive, and kind to the environment. This article serves as a guide for eco-friendly holiday gift ideas for those who like to give and receive eco-friendly holiday cheer. Consider these personal products for your family, friends, co-workers; they’re quality , affordable, and absolutely environmentally friendly and green.

Lemongrass Zen Soap for the home and office: We recommend Lemongrass Zen soap, a beautiful smelling product from Vermont soapworks. This organic foaming hand soap is made with natural oils and has never been tested on animals, nor contains any animal products—safe and nontoxic for children and all living things (with the exception of germs). No propellants, no chemicals, and this gift is USDA approved and certified organic. Makes a perfect gift for friends, co-workers, and an all around great household soap.

Wrap-N-Mat Reusable Sandwich Bags are a fantastic product and an even better alternative to carrying lunch to school in recycle paper bags or recycled containers. Perfect for children and adults who bring lunch to work, these reusable sandwich bags are machine washable and serve as a placemat when opened—bread and sandwiches are kept fresh, and your children will be able to eat on a clean surface. These sandwich bags are a unique gift—environmentally friendly, fabric (not PVC) lining, and made under fair trade conditions.FDA has approved their contact with food, and they’re free of phthalates and lead.

Organic Hot Cocoa—rich, chocolatey, and the perfect gift for just about anybody. Choose cocoa that’s absolutely organic (and made with nonfat organic milk), convenient (just add hot water), and fairly traded. This product supports farmers in 3 countries—farmers from the Dominican Republic produce organic coca, organic fairly traded sugar from Paraguay, and organic milk from the United States. This is a fantastic and delicious gift for children, co-workers, friends and family.

Recycled Paper Wildlife Calendar: From the House of Doolittle, this 12 month wire bound calendar is a beautiful gift for friends, family members, and co-workers. Made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper and printed on soy ink, this wildlife photo features an inspirational quotation for each month. Caring for the environment by purchasing recycled paper products creates a powerful environmental impact and helps divert good recyclable paper away from landfills and back into consumer products.Choosing a recycled paper calendar is a truly green paper purchase.

Recycled Paper Planner: This product is made by House of Doolittle, a manufacturing company using recycle paper materials for 20 years—these beautiful recycled paper desk planners make for great gifts and are made from 100% post consumer fibers and soy ink. House of Doolittle offers a variety of other recycle paper products, including appointment planners, memo pads, and office supplies.A high quality, environmentally friendly gift for co-workers and friends.

We hope these eco-friendly gift ideas are useful and wish you joy in the upcoming holiday season! Learn more about recycled paper, eco-friendly gifts, and other contributions you can make to do your part and protect the environment.

Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Greenline Paper Company, America’s green office supply store. Visit their website for more information on environmentally friendly office supplies, recycled containers, holiday gifts, and recycle paper.
POSTED BY GREEN LINE PAPER COMPANY AT 5:24 AM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: OFFICE PAPER, PAPER, RECYCLE, RECYCLED, RECYCLED PAPER, RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS, SALE, SALES
How To Make Smarter Business Decisions: 3 Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Office Environment
Many businesses have discovered they not only have an important commitment to the world around them but that there’s a lot to be gained financially from implementing green office initiatives.More than ever, companies are paying attention to their environmental impact and making changes, some starting from the ground up, others taking small steps to creating a more environmentally friendly workplace. No matter the type of business you have or the industry you’re in, there are easy and affordable ways to make very important environmental changes that’ll mean positive results for your bottom line, as well as the environment. This article discusses easy ways companies can create a green office environment.

Recycled Paper in the Workplace:
Approximately 10,000 sheets of paper are used by a single US office worker in a year.

Nearly 95% of this paper will be thrown away, not recycled.

In this decade alone, it’s estimated that Americans will throw away more then 4 million tons of office paper—and 10 million tons of newspaper as well. All this material is recyclable. This paper could make a 12’ wall from New York to the state of California.

One ton of recycled paper can save almost 4,000 pounds of lumber and nearly 25,000 gallons of water.

Recycling one ton of paper uses 64% less energy, 50% less water, 75% less air pollution, and saves approximately 17 trees.
It’s not hard to create a green office environment.The following steps are easy ways to upgrade equipment and supplies to encourage a greener workplace and home office.

New and Efficient Office Equipment:

It may be time to invest in new office equipment—older models use far more energy then modern alternatives. Consider office copiers, fax machines, and other equipment with Energy Star labels. When you purchase green office supplies and equipment, you’ll use less power and have longer lasting equipment. It’s also a good idea to buy a digital copier that also functions as a scanner, printer, and fax machine. If you can purchase office equipment that is versatile, you’ll safe space and money.

Recycle Paper: Go Paperless

It’s a good idea to start using document management software and move away from paper filing that’s been popular for decades. It’s now easy to scan documents or save them as PDFs and other types of files—this makes those documents accessible to many individuals, and available whenever you need them. Using document management software as an alternative to paper is useful in many work environments. If this solution doesn’t work, recycled paper products such as desk pads, computer paper, recycled calendars, and other similar supplies are a great choice.

Recycle Paper and Upgrade Your Bathroom:

There are many easy green substitutes to be made to an office bathroom to reduce water usage and energy, as well as consumption of paper products.Motion sensors in lighting fixtures, automatic flushing devices, and sink water controls will all reduce water and energy consumption.Using recycle paper towels and recycled toilet paper is a great alternative to the regular product, and investing in a cold jet air dryer is a paperless solution.

Those are a few suggestions for green office innovation.Learn more about other green office initiatives and create a workplace you and colleagues can be proud of.

Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Greenline Paper Company, America’s green office supply store.Visit their website for more information on environmentally friendly office supplies, desk pads, and recycle paper at Greenlinepaper.com.
POSTED BY GREEN LINE PAPER COMPANY AT 12:52 AM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: HEMP, OFFICE, OFFICE PAPER, OFFICE SUPPLIES, OFFICE SUPPLY, PAPER, RECYCLE, RECYCLED, RECYCLED PAPER, RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS, SALE, SALES
Solving the Plastic Bag Pandemic: Natureworks Biodegradable Plastics and Trash Bags
Did you know that it’s estimated that the world uses approximately 1 trillion, 500 billion plastic bags a year? That’s equivalent to almost 1 million plastic bags every minute. Per family, that’s 60 bags per every 4 trips to the grocery store.

One of the most problematic issues with our modern world is the accumulation of non-biodegradable trash, specifically plastic bags like grocery bags and shopping bags made of polyethylene. These bags are very popular—approximately four in every five bags handed out at grocery stores are of the plastic variety. Because these plastic shopping bags are handed out abundantly and are rarely recycled, they end up in landfills and municipal trash incinerators. Plastic garbage bags, trash bags, and shopping bags are non-biodegradable and won’t break down easily in the natural environment. Under ideal circumstances, high-density plastic bags take approximately 20 years to degrade. However, in normal circumstances or less than ideal circumstances, a bag can take as long as 1,000 years to fully disintegrate.

Paper bags aren’t much better.In some ways are even worse than plastic.The manufacture of paper bags creates 50 times as much water pollutants and global warming gases. 90% less electrical energy is required to recycle plastic than the equivalent weight in paper. Additionally, paper grocery bags break down most easily in commercial or municipal composting programs.

Natureworks PLA or corn based “plastics” are one example of an alternative to traditional plastic trash bags and shopping bags. Biodegradable bags such as these are ideal for retail settings, offices, at home, or as a substitute for any non-environmentally friendly plastic bag.Natureworks plastic products and other biodegradable plastics are made from biopolymers, like polylactic acid that can be transformed into anything from clothing fibers, packaging materials, food containers, and a variety of other products. Natureworks bio-plastics are one such example of a plastic that’s derived from 100% renewable, yellow corn resources and can contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions.Biodegradable trash bags vary in the amount of time they take to degrade, but most break down in 3 to 6 months in good landfill conditions.Unlike petroleum based, conventional plastics, bio-plastics do not contribute to the toxicity of landfills or incinerator stack emissions.Equally important, if bio-based plastics are littered, they don’t degrade into toxic particles that then pollute nearby bodies of water, wildlife, soil, and other sensitive environments.

Uses for Biodegradable Plastic Bags: Natureworks Plastic and Trash Bags

Replacing traditional non-biodegradable trash bags in the kitchen, home, and office, and cleaning up pooch poop and cat litter are good uses for compostable plastic and trash bags. Take the time to learn more about plastic bags and trash bags made from natural plastic and fibers and find out if they’d be a benefit to your home and office and reduce landfill waste.

Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Greenline Paper Company, America’s green office supply store deals with Natureworks Plastic.Visit their website for more information on environmentally friendly office supplies, Trash Bags and the House of Doolittle.
POSTED BY GREEN LINE PAPER COMPANY AT 12:55 AM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: OFFICE, OFFICE PAPER, PAPER, RECYCLE, RECYCLED, RECYCLED PAPER, RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS, SALE, SALES
Why Using Recycled Toner Cartridges Greatly Helps the Environment
When the LaserJet computer printer was introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 1984 it was sold with an "all-in-one" toner cartridge. This toner cartridge seemed like a great idea until the empty cartridges started to cause environmental concerns.Today it is estimated that over 300 million plastic recycled toner cartridges are thrown away yearly in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Each toner cartridge weighs approximately 3-1/2 to 4 pounds, which means that the total weight of cartridges discarded is equivalent to over 67,000 Ford Explorers! Fortunately today most cartridge manufacturers have established capturing programs for the empty cores but the story doesn't end there. Investigations into the destination of these captured cartridges found that many are exported into Asian countries where workers under primitive conditions clean and prepare the empties for recycling.See article here.

Interestingly up to 97% of the materials that make up a toner cartridge can be recycled or reused.That's why domestic recycling or remanufacturing of toner and ink cartridges is the best solution.By reusing recycled toner cartridges, non-renewable resources are conserved and the environmental impacts associated with the manufacturing process are greatly reduced.The reason that many business offices resist remanufactured toner cartridges is because of quality concerns.However, the quality of professionally remanufactured toners has dramatically increased over the past decade and most reputable manufacturers and dealers will 100% guarantee the performance of their remanufactured toner products.

Should a green office use recycled toners? Yes, and you'll save money too!

Some Toner Cartridge Facts
Toner cartridges take between 500-1000 years to decompose in a landfill.

The plastic in each toner cartridge takes about 3.5 quarts of oil to produce.

The number of toner cartridges thrown out increased by 12 percent in the last year.

Anti-trust laws prevent office machine maintenance companies from excluding remanufactured toners in their maintenance contracts.
Steve Baker is owner of Greenline Paper, a green company that provides environmental products including recycled toner cartridges and other recycled and green office supplies.
POSTED BY GREEN LINE PAPER COMPANY AT 3:34 AM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: HEMP, OFFICE, OFFICE PAPER, OFFICE SUPPLIES, OFFICE SUPPLY, PAPER, RECYCLE, RECYCLED, RECYCLED PAPER, RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS, SALE, SALES
Buying Organic Coffee Wholesale: Why Make The Switch to Organic Coffee
Did you know that coffee is the most heavily chemically treated food commodity in the world?

When coffee is produced, synthetic petroleum-based fertilizers are frequently used to protect the crop and ward off bugs and other pests. However, these chemicals leech into the soil, destroying its fertility and ability to grow future healthy plants.The chemical laden water runoff gets into adjacent water supplies, polluting local drinking water.Coffee beans grown quickly in the sun for mass production require chemical fertilizers as they’re meant to make up for lost nutrients, as the coffee is grown in less then optimal conditions. Soil erosion and lack of naturally occurring “nitrogen fixing” plants, such as legumes make these pesticides necessary.Because of the full on sun conditions and lack of shade trees,chemicals are necessary to control the large amount of insects, which would normally be eliminated by birds. However, no birds choose to live in the inhospitable treeless full-on sun climate of a coffee farm.

Organic Coffee = Less Deforestation

Buying organic coffee wholesale can help contribute to less deforestation.Naturally, coffee trees grow in the shade of dense rainforests.In order to maximize productivity and get the most out of the crop, the coffee industry developed bean hybrids that are “sun resistant”, and this type of coffee now represents more then 70% of the global coffee market. To make room for these new shade resistant, extra productive trees, vast expanses of the rainforest are being cleared to make room for our morning coffee habit.

Buy Organic Coffee Wholesale: Taste the Difference

We think organic, shade grown coffee just tastes better, too.By nature, the coffee plant produces better tasting and better quality beans when grown slowly and naturally in the shade of the rainforest.As the demand for coffee increases,high productivity techniques developed, but coffee quality has diminished and the market has become flooded with low quality beans and cheaper prices.Buying organic coffee wholesale is a great way to support and encourage healthy systems and natural coffee-production. Organic wholesale coffee encourages better practices from bean buyers, growers, and coffee shops, so you’ll get to enjoy a superior and environmentally friendly cup of coffee.It’s a win-win situation—buying organic coffee wholesale ensures you get the best-tasting beans, and saves out birds, animals, the environment, and the is fair to farmers.

Buy organic coffee wholesale and ensure you’re getting a fair price, and beans grown without harsh fertilizers or toxic pesticides.When you purchase organic coffee wholesale you’ll know you’re drinking better beans—beans grown in the plant’s natural preferences that reap the benefits of a healthy ecosystem.

Learn more about purchasing organic coffee wholesale and how you can affordably enjoy a natural and better tasting cup of coffee.

Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Green Line Paper.If you wish to learn more about the benefits of buying organic coffee wholesale, visit our website today and let our environmental paper products make a difference in your home.
POSTED BY GREEN LINE PAPER COMPANY AT 11:15 PM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: OFFICE, OFFICE PAPER, OFFICE SUPPLY, PAPER, RECYCLE, RECYCLED, RECYCLED PAPER, RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS, SALE, SALES
Recycled Toilet Paper: The Easiest Way To Be Environmentally Conscious

No matter how much of an effort you’re making to be green, some of the easiest ways to be environmentally conscious are often overlooked. Next time you venture into the bathroom, examine your toilet paper. There’s a huge chance that the toilet paper you’re using is made from trees—trees from the last virgin forests of North America.

Is using “regular” toilet paper really as bad as driving a Hummer?

Consider this: If every household in the USA replaced only a single roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with one made from 100% recycled post consumer waste, we could save almost 424,000 trees.

Buying recycled toilet paper for your home or office is one of the easiest ways to avoid contributing to destructive environmental processes. Napkins, paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper are all one-time usage only products, so it makes sense to purchase recycled versions of these products and avoid contributing to more waste. If not, paper giants such as Kimberly-Clark are forced to source from virgin forests that are ecologically valuable.

Recycled toilet paper is a product that has high post-consumer content. Post consumer products have a high content of recycled material—paper in this case that would have otherwise gone to a landfill or burned up in an incinerator. Other non-recycled toilet paper products also have been put through a harsh bleaching process with harmful chemicals like chlorine to give them a white and bright appearance. The chlorine and chemicals end up either in our water supply or in the air and can be harmful to fish, animals, and humans as well. Recycled toilet paper should be chlorine free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF).

Unfortunately, recycled toilet paper has a reputation for not holding up to regular brands when it comes to comfort—and that’s something that most Americans are unwilling to compromise on. Recycled toilet paper represents only 2% of the TP sold in the US market, but in Europe and Latin America it stands at 20%.

Recycled toilet paper might not be the softest toilet paper you’ve ever tried, but seriously consider whether or not it’s worth turning the remaining forests of North America into the most disposable of products.
Erica Ronchetti is a freelance writer for Green line paper. If you wish to learn more about recycled toilet paper & environmental products visit our website today and let our eco-friendly products make a difference in your home or office.

  

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