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Paper and Environment
Consumers and industry in the UK consumes
about eleven million tonnes of paper and cardboard per
annum. Sweden and Finland supply most the wood. Old
forests there have largely been replaced by managed
forestry for export purposes. For many years campaigns
have been conducted to promote recycling and the responsible
use of our resources.
The public increasingly supports recycling
efforts. However, less than half of the paper used in
the UK is recycled. This means, five million tonnes
of waste paper are dumped in landfill sites. Clearly,
even more effort is needed to recover more and to decrease
consumption. This is true for paper as well as other
products used in the production process.
What you can do
The simplest advice to protect the
environment is to eliminate the unneccessary use of
paper. Some ideas to get started:
- Share documents instead of copying them
- Use office equipment with duplex printing functionality
- Set the default on your copier on duplex copying
or put a reminder by the copier
- Do not print out documents and e-mails if not
really required
- Do not run both electronic and hardcopy archives
- Do not fax if you could e-mail
- Install software for paperless faxing via the
modem
- Ask your supplier for lighter weight paper, especially
for internal jobs
- Use the spell check and print preview functions
before printing out documents
- Submit forms electronically if possible
- Re-use paper that is blank on one side, for drafts
etc
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