Benefits Of Recycled Paper In The Home Office

Image by tonx via Flickr

Being frugal can help you not only save money, but it will also help the environment and by making just a few simple changes to your home office you can accomplish both.

With the stress of today’s economy, it’s important for Work At Home Moms to identify area’s where spending can be reduced, without sacrificing quality or customer service.

Why use recycled paper:

Using the Paper Calculator, I checked out the environmental impact of using 10 tons of non-recycled copy paper per year and here’s what I found:

Wood Use (measures the amount of wood required to produce a given amount of paper.) 35 Tons vs 0 Tons for recycled paper
Total Energy (measures all the energy, including electricity and all forms of fuels, consumed to produce a given amount of paper.) 384 Million BTU’s vs 217 Million BTU’s for recycled paper
Greenhouse Gases (measured in CO₂ equivalents) 56,902 lbs vs 35,821 lbs for recycled paper
Waste Water (measures the amount of process water that is treated and discharged to a mill’s receiving waters) 190,752 Gallons vs 103,250 Gallons for recycled paper
Solid Waste (includes sludge and other wastes generated during pulp and paper manufacturing, and used paper disposed of in landfills and incinerators.) 22,783 lbs vs 11,547 lbs for recycled paper

Are you beginning to see the effects being caused by every new package of fresh paper produced? Not only is it eliminating our forests, the energy and waste being generated is outrageous.

There is good news though! According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 2007, 56 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling. This impressive figure equals nearly 360 pounds for each man, woman, and child in America.

A few more paper tips:

Use the front and back of paper - if you have single sided documents headed for the recycling bin, use the back of them first! Great for notes, or draft documents. Once both sides have been used and you no longer require the sheet, put it in the recycling bin and give back to the environment.
Provide your customers and clients with a “paperless” option. With all of the junk mail still being received, they may be thankful for an email invoice instead. On the flipside of this, request paperless options from your suppliers too. Not only will you be saving the environment, you’ll also be saving money for postage, and you’ll be saving yourself from a drive to the post office too!
Look around your office for other paper sources that can be recycled - boxes and paperboard for example.