Paper is too valuable to waste. Your argument on that, ?No, it isn?t!, it?s too cheap and costs a few bucks? Well let me explain how?

Around the world we use 1 million tones of paper everyday and 93% of paper comes from trees alone which we can call as virgin paper. Paper also accounts for half of municipal solid waste. The pulp and paper industry is the third largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry and is one of the world?s major greenhouse gas emitters. About 20,000,000 trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for production of books in the US alone and this figure is huge.

So think green and save the environment while saving you some money by using less paper. Anything we can do to save paper will help reduce the amount of trash going into landfills, and it will also reduce energy use and pollution associated with manufacturing, transporting, and recycling new paper products. Perhaps most importantly, when we save paper, we reduce the need to cut down trees to make new paper.

Convinced? Still not, Read on?

Producing one ton of paper requires 2-3 times its weight in trees. Making paper from recycled content rather than virgin fiber creates 74 percent less air pollution and 35 percent less water pollution.

Too much of this paper usage is wasteful and unnecessary and puts huge pressures on the environment. Take action now for the environment – save forests, save paper, save money. Paper usage in many parts of the word is on the rise. Expanding production and pulp wood harvesting threatens some of the last remaining natural forests and the people and wildlife that depend on them. The world?s paper hunger also significantly contributes to climate change. I personally admit that computers and technology has actually led to the increase in paper consumption but technology and computers help too.

Easy actions can make a big difference for the environment.

1. Follow the golden rule. ?Think before you print?.
2. Use both sides of the paper for printing.
3. Check your draft 2-3 times on screen before you actually hit the print button.
4. Use what technology has provided you, send emails, scan documents and send electronically rather than scanning copies and sending.
5. Use the print range feature, print current page etc to print only what you need.
6. Don?t throw away misprints instead use them as drafts or print on the other side.
7. Buy recycled paper, a ton of paper made from recycled paper, as opposed to virgin paper, saves the equivalent of 4,100 kilowatt hours of energy, 7000 gallons of water, 60 pounds of air emissions, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space.
8. Opt for electronic bank statements, credit card statements, bills.
9. Save paper in your workplace.

Few points mentioned above can help a lot in saving environment, avoiding environmental hazards and saving trees before disaster strikes. We humans have created technology for our use; we cannot become slave of what we have created by using earth?s natural resources instead think about giving back to environment what we have taken from it.

I guess we must be convinced by now; how valuable paper is? Readers, please share actions which can help save paper and how you are implementing them in your daily routine.