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1st Step to ZeroWaste - Go Paperless

Dear  Planeteers,

One step at a time can help us organize things and do it more efficiently. I firmly believe that by doing so we can achieve high productivity and best results. Now we need to apply this principle in our daily lives to show our respect towards plant earth. 

When we think about going green, first and foremost thing we can  start doing is reducing paper clutter. Stopping all paper billing and statements. Going paperless seems to be very easy, but it is not that easy when we start tracking and try to go zero paper at home. But let me tell you one thing, it is not impossible. So let's first understand how big impact we can create by going paperless. 

We all know that most of the paper comes from trees. To produce the paper, we cut the trees and use the pulp from the tree. 

On an average 40-year-old tree with 75 ft height and one ft diameter provide around 103097 paper (A4 size).  This tree can absorb around 48 lb to 50 lb of CO2 (Carbon dioxide). 

Now, let's jump into statistics how much paper we are using per year. (These numbers are average).

Following are  some of the most common sources of paper for most of us: 

Telephone Bill, Electricity Bill, Auto Insurance Statement, Credit Card Statement, Bank Statement, Other Utility statements, Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Medical Statements, Home loan, Auto loan statements, Tax Statements, Receipts from grocery stores, Paper bags from different stores, Envelopes for all these.

This list goes on, as an individual, you can find out what are the paper products at your home. On an average per household, we are going to receive  at-least 2500 papers of mails in the post which we can control, other than these sometimes we get store catalogs, local offers and much more. Any new purchases related cardboard boxes, some of the e-commerce companies send online order packages with printed invoice, paper stuffed cardboard boxes.

Other than these some of the families use paper plates, paper cups, paper towels.  All these are just getting multiplied. Now imagine paying these bills if you are doing them through checks. 
On an average per household in USA 23 lb of paper and paper products are used. 

Now when we do math with all these, In 3 years duration, an average  family consumes well-matured tree of at least 40 years old (indirectly as paper).  By cutting the tree, we are removing a plant which can absorb 48 lb to 50 lb Co2 from the atmosphere. 

So far we did not take into consideration  paper production and distribution. There are other resources which get consumed in this process. 
Paper industry is one of the top consumers of energy in the United States, that energy might be from nonclean resources. Which means production and distribution of this paper will contaminate, Air, Water, Land. Which means we are producing extra Co2 and removing a tree which absorb that co2 which means we are doubling the impact. 

Let's look into some additional statistics:  There are 125.82 million households are there in the USA along which means on an average there are 41.94 million trees are cut to support the paper consumption by USA household along. Each tree can absorb 48 pounds of co2 per year which means  2013.12 million pounds of Co2 is not absorbed, because of cutting trees. Now transportation and making paper products will also add co2 to the atmosphere. 

1 Household - without paperless commitment - reduce Co2 Absorption by 16 lb - produce by using paper products another 8 lb - 10 lb of more CO2. 

By reducing or avoiding paper usage we are directly creating the impact on the environment, we are reducing pollution caused by the paper product distribution. Also, we are reducing cutting trees. This will let more co2 absorption, will help us get more Oxygen and clean air and predictable weather patterns. 

Please make a decision to start your paperless billing. Check your bank, utility company, insurance company.They might provide some discounts too when we opt for paperless statements. This will help you to reduce clutter at home, protect trees, reduce CO2 production and increase its absorption. Visualize yourself with empty mail box where you don't have any paper clutter; this also saves lots of time. 

I might not have  presented these numbers to you without below sources: 


#ZeroWaste #ClimateChange #OneStepAtATime #RefuseReduceReuseRecycleRot 

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