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-consumerâ€
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.
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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.
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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.
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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 “plasticsâ€
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.
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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.
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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
resistantâ€, 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.
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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.
