Fog City Green Tip of the Day:

Go Paperless

Photo courtesy UK Environment Agency

April 11, 2007

Banking and paying bills online does more than save trees. It also helps reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

When you receive unwanted catalogs, newsletters, magazines, or junk mail, request to be deleted from their mailing lists before you recycle them.

Americans, use an average of 741 pounds of paper, per person, each year. (Source www.nrdc.org)

The EPA estimates that waste paper occupies 40 percent of landfill space in the United States, with newspaper comprising 13 percent.

Paper does not biodegrade as fast when placed in a landfill as it does when exposed to open air. According to research conducted by renowned scientist William Rathje, newspapers from the 1960s extracted from landfills are intact and readable.

The paper industry may contribute to more global and local problems than any other industry. Paper manufactures reach deep into species-rich forests for virgin timber, razing trees, polluting waterways, and destroying precious wildlife habitat.

Pulp and paper mills that use virgin timber are major generators of hazardous air pollutants including dioxins and other caricinogenic chemicals. Additionally, the industry is the third largest industrial producer of Global Warming related pollutents. (Source www.nrdc.org)

You can make a difference in the fight against Global Warming! Go paperless, pay all your bills online, use e-mails instead of letters, send e-cards instead post cards, and use a canvas shopping bag when you go to the Supermarket, and read your news online.

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