Pop Quiz: Pile on the Paper
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04.10.08
Answer: D) 700 pounds of paper
While worldwide average per-capita paper use is 110 pounds, in the US that number is almost 7 times greater at 700 pounds per person. While it was widely believed that the computer greatly reduce paper consumption, the average daily web user prints 28 pages daily.
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Source: Wikipedia
For what it's worth, I do think this will and is changing. With electronic bill pay and electronic bank statements, we mostly only get junk mail. Since everything from registering for events to birthday cards can now be done on-line, we only use our printer a few times a year and rarely send snail mail. At work, the only people who ask me to print things out are the old folks who aren't used to reading memos on a computer screen. Once the X-generation takes over at companies, I think paper usage will start to fall. After all, I speculate most printing occurs at work. The only people I know who print out e-mail at home are 80 years old.
What really irks me, though, is the junk mail I get from environmental organizations. Since I donate to between 5 and 10 environmental orgs each year, I get a lot of junk mail from people who should be working on using less paper. It seems completely contradictory.
So is this an issue that might be erradicated from such corporations that SHOULD be focusing their time and energy on PRESERVING our natural resources and not utilizing them for things such as "junk" mail?
Does this include eco-friendly paper?