Did you know- Since 1990, land in tropical forests has been disappearing at the rate of one football field every 2 seconds to satisfy the worlds demand for paper?  80% of all office waste is paper?

We observed Paperless Day in our school today as we did in 2011 too, an initiative started by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, promoting better paper saving habits for the long-term, in an effort to reduce our impact on the environment.  All photocopying was stalled for the day and printing was reduced to minimum. The school which uses about 8-10 reams of paper per day on an average used not even 1 ream in observance.

The students had to study and we used note copies to write notes but were careful on not misusing paper and each one of us knew the importance of paper.  We have been collecting old news papers and recycling them on a regular basis.

The simple ways to get started and join the paperless movement are-
Make informed choices when buying paper and learn all about what types of paper are more sustainable and environmentally-friendly.

The more people you involve in your paper-saving quest, the more impact your efforts will have. Get involved in Paperless Day with the goal of building better paper-saving habits in the future.

GET SET FOR A PAPERLESS DAY, 365 DAYS INA YEAR-

I am sharing some useful tips to help you reduce your wasteful paper use and to get yourself for Paperless Day 2012.

EVERYTIME- Think before you Print- DO I REALLY NEED TO DO?

PRINT SMART, USE BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER, MINIMISE FONT AND MARGIN.

WHY PAPERLESS?  - http://www.paperlessday.com/why-paperless.aspx

Since paper is so easily available it's easy to forget about its enormous environmental impact.  It is recognized that the paper and pulp industry is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and every step in the life cycle of a sheet of paper contributes to climate change - from cutting down trees, to producing the pulp and paper, to its eventual disposal.  

The paper production process significantly contributes to the destruction of forests in fact around 40% of the world's commercially cut timber is processed for paper.  Half the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what's left has been seriously degraded. Since 1990, 9 million hectares of tropical forest have disappeared every year.  That's one football field every 2 seconds.

The loss of forests is more damaging than just the physical loss of trees, forests store roughly 50% of all terrestrial carbon, making them one of our most important safeguards against climate change. The destruction of forests also seriously threatens the habitats of many rare and critically endangered plant and animal species including Asian big cats such as Tigers, Asian Elephants, Asian Rhinos, and Orangutans

The paper production process also consumes vast amounts of water and discharges water pollutants as well as omitting huge quantities of greenhouse gasses - a main source of global climate change. In fact, the pulp and paper industry is the fourth largest emitter of industrial greenhouse gases.  When it rots, paper emits methane (a greenhouse gas), and it releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) when it is composted or burned. When you consider that 80% of office waste is paper, and the large majority of this goes to landfill – it is easy to see there is lot of wasted resources, money and time, buried in these landfills.     

The UAE has a very high per capita consumption of paper, 175kg, against the global average of 62 kg. The UAE also has one of the highest ecological footprints in the world.  To maintain our current way of living we would need 5.6 planet earths.  

Reducing wasteful paper use will play an important role in addressing the imbalance of current resource use and enabling a sustainable quality of life. Paperless Day is an easy and practical way to start on the journey toward being more resource efficient.  

 By Simran Vedvyas

Environment Club Prefect- The Millennium School