7 ways to save paper

By Aditya Mhatre at 26 January, 2008, 10:37 am

It may sound clich� to say, that we can do a good deal for our environment if we do our bit to save paper, electricity, plastic, water, petrol etc. The only difference is that we should stop mouthing these as platitudes in our every day conversations and start acting upon them. These are simple things that don�t require too much of our effort and yet they slip our mind because these are not a way of life for us. This is how I would prefer to show my patriotism towards my country rather than singing Jana Gana Mana in movie halls.

At the risk of sounding too preachy, I will list down a few steps that can go a long way in saving our environment from extinct hood. Some may or may not agree with these points. Some may say that nothing really happens by doing these. They maybe right. But I will regard this write up a success if this will atleast make you sit up and argue that what is good and what not good for our society and make you think about simple ways following which you can make your own life a much better life to live.

I will start with Paper. The thing that we waste the most and the one that is easiest to save. But because it is so cheap and comes for free most of the times to us in form of office stationary we never really give it a second thought before wasting it. Not that I have been following these steps all along but from today I will make a conscious effort in following them. Also, these are not copy paste from googling, but a few thoughts of mine that I may have gathered from everyday life. So these are not scientifically proven and hence free for debate for the evolution of better ideas.

Think twice before taking a print out. Do you really need it or it�s such a matter of convenience to store a hard copy. Just thinking about it will make you cut down your print outs by half. Change your printer settings to print on both the sides. Also, just because you can fire print outs for free doesn�t mean that you keep throwing them here and there and then take more copies because you have lost them.
Use your diary, notebooks, register to the last page. We are so much in the habit of using half the pages of a diary and then throwing it away because you want to start afresh in a new one. If you really want to go for a new one and you have pages left in the old one, tear the old pages and give it to a children orphanage where kids can use them and for who these cheap things are of a great value.
We may take printout of forms more than we need or fill some forms wrongly and throw them away. Instead of just throwing them away, keep them in a file to use them for rough work or making your own small notepad out of them. Especially so with people with kids. Asking your children to use every page of their notebook and using their old notebooks for rough work will not only save paper but also instill a sense of discipline towards their environment right from the childhood.
Avoid paper newspaper subscription: And just because the media barons are falling over each other to sell you their newspapers, doesn�t mean that you keep buying all of them just because they come for Rs 200 per annum. Think twice before you take a newspaper subscription just because it�s cheap. Do you really have the time to read 4 newspapers in a day? I myself have 4 newspapers at my home and am ashamed I was also lured. But have now decided to cut it down to two.
Paper cups at water coolers: We all have water coolers in our office where we have paper cups and every time we drink water we use a paper cup. Instead if we all carry our plastic bottles and drink water in those only, imagine the number of paper cups that you will save by this simple thing. Maybe my insight is wrong, but I have seen that guys usually shy away from carrying water bottles. I don�t know what�s so feminine of drinking water from your bottle in office. I think it�s more so because guys don�t like to carry bags and hence bottles. But you can keep a bottle in your office which you can use if it�s a not style statement for you carry them.
Use e-bills: We get n number of bills these days. Phone bills, account statements, credit card bills etc. Most of the companies have started the facility of sending these on your emailed rather than posting them to you. Subscribing for these, will not only save a lot of paper but help you in organizing all your bills in one folder of your mailbox rather than them lying helter skelter everywhere.
Avoid paper gift wrapping or reuse gift wrappers: Next time when you are gifting something, if you know that your friend is just going to tear open the parcel in front of you, why waste the wrapping paper. If you have to give a wrapped gift in a party or somewhere its going to opened later then its fine otherwise am sure the gifted party will not mind if its wrapped or not.

That�s all from my side for paper saving. I will just talk about paper here and will continue this with a series on conservation of other items; otherwise not many will read it because of the length. Also, I will be happier if people debate on these and come up with their own ideas to save paper. I will include them in the second part of the series. We may or may not follow these steps but I will consider my job done if you will just give it a second thought. If you just feel a slight guilty pang the next time when you take a careless printout or throw away an unused book, that will also go a long away in changing the way we look at things.