The fourth Thursday of October is celebrated as World Paper Free Day. This year it falls on the 27th. It’s a day full of exciting activities in organizations around the world. Why so much buzz around this day? There are 2 main motivators that get people’s attention and arouse their interest in this event:

1. Environment-related reasons
2. Business benefits related reasons

In this blog post, we look at the environmental reasons. We will look at the business benefits of going paperless, in the next post.

Environment-related reasons

Were you aware that…

• The amount of wood and paper thrown away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years?
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, this would save about 25 million trees a year?
• Recycled paper also takes 60-70% less energy to produce than paper from virgin pulp?
• On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 per ton to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 per ton to incinerate it?

(Source: http://www.opin.com/green/facts.php)

Much as these facts reveal about the need to consume less paper, most people still get discouraged. They tend to think, “What good will it do if I alone do my bit and others don’t?” But the large numbers are just the sum total of what each individual like you has done. So if you cut down your paper consumption, chances are that many others like you will follow suit. It will reflect in the figures we read a few years from now. You can then take credit and know that you were among those who set the numbers right.

It pays to celebrate the World Paper Free Day – not only in terms of environmental conservation, but also in terms of benefits it brings to business organizations. We will cover that aspect in the next blog post. Stay tuned – subscribe to the ITAZ blog!