Care about green/social issues? Want to stay on top of the green news about technology and things? Subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Recycling programs have sprung up all over the United States and the first post consumer product you usually see collected is paper. It’s relatively easy to recycle and reuse, but still paper is tossed in waste bins and sent to landfills to take up room decomposing and letting off greenhouse gases. At the same time paper is used for some of the most wasteful products. I’ve gathered together some of the ways you can cut down on paper you use and paper products that get sent to you.
- Get off of junk mail lists like the Direct Mailing Association.
- Do not ask for a copy of your receipt at restaurants or if it’s an automatic ask them to not print one for you.
- Do not get a paper copy of your transactions from the ATM.
- Use washable dish towels instead of buying paper towels.
- Use dishwasher safe reusable plates instead of paper plates.
- Only buy 100% recycled paper for your home printer.
- Use a program like the free GreenPrint World or buy a more feature rich program.
- Opt-out of the credit approval junk mail list using OptOutPrescreen.com provided by the credit screening companies. (They provide a five year electronic opt-out option so you do not have to use paper to send in the request by mail)
- Turn in reports to your teacher or boss by email if possible.
- If you eat fast food only take a napkin or two if you’ll need them. No need for a huge stack.
There are tons of options to reducing your paper intake and I hope that the options I’ve provided are of some use. If you have anymore suggestions please add them to the comments or email me using the contact link at the top of the page.
| 2.5 |
Related posts:
Jason
March 16th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I take junk mail, run it through a shredder (minus the potentially damaging parts, including staples and personal information), and use it for packing material when selling stuff on eBay.
[Reply]
Great idea. I bet the colorful packing paper is pretty cool looking to the receiver.
[Reply]