KEEP TRACK OF HOW YOU ARE HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT, WITH OUR GREEN MANAGEMENT COUNTER.
All of our clients receive free tracking of the amount of paper they recycle through our shredding services.
Why Recycle your secure documents after shredding?
* Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
* To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
*Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
* If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
* If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
* During World War II when raw materials were scarce, 33% of all paper was recycled. After the war, this number decreased sharply.
* If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!!
* The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
* The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
* When you smell a dump, what you're actually smelling is the paper in the dump!
* Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
* Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
* The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
* In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
* In 1993, nearly 36,000,000 tons of paper were recoverd in the U.S.--twice as much in 1980.
* 27% of the newspapers produced in America are recycled.
* Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
* The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
* The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.
Why Should You Buy Recycled Paper? Because…
· Over 90% of paper made in America is still made from trees.
· For every 20 cases of recycled paper substituted for non-recycled paper, you save 17 trees, 390 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4,100 kWh of energy.
· You eliminate 60 pounds of air-polluting emissions and save 8 cubic feet of landfill space. That’s a BIG benefit for changing to a product that is as good as the product you use now.
Myth 1: Recycled paper jams copiers.
The quality of recycled copy paper is equal to or better than virgin paper. It successfully runs on the most demanding copiers, office machines, and printing presses. If the paper jams in a copier, it is not because of the recycled content. Use paper qualified as “high-speed” for high-speed copiers. The machine may need cleaning or adjusting. Try another brand of recycled paper, just as you’d try another brand of virgin paper.
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Myth 3: No one carries recycled paper.
Recycled-content paper products are available in all colors, including the brightest whites, and meet the highest technical standards, sometimes even exceeding comparable virgin papers. Most printers, paper distributors, and retail outlets have some recycled paper on their shelves. And, your choices are even greater if you order recycled paper ahead of time.
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Myth 2: Recycled paper costs more.
Many grades such as text and cover (often used for letterhead, brochures and publications) and some coated papers are cost-competitive with virgin papers or even cost less, especially letterhead, matching envelopes, business cards, brochures, and many coated papers. Buying in larger quantities and planning ahead further reduces or eliminates price premiums on recycled paper.
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Myth 4: Creating recycled paper is bad for the environment.
Manufacturing recycled-content paper products saves trees, energy, water, and landfill space compared to virgin paper while creating less pollution. And, making paper from paper requires less bleaching than virgin papers, which in turn reduces the use of toxic chemicals. Your purchase of recycled paper can protect forests, watersheds, and ecosystems.
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How to Make a Difference:
· Make sure your document shredding service implements an extensive recycling program.
· Buy the highest post-consumer content you can, such as 30% or more, balanced against your budget and functional needs.
· Use recycled paper both for “public” paper, uses such as stationery, direct mail and brochures and for less visible uses, such as copy paper.
· Implement a buy-recycled policy
· Request recycled-content paper for print jobs, and label communications with “Printed (or Copied) on Recycled Paper.”
· Solve equipment and other complaints by investigating all possible causes of the problem. Don’t quit buying recycled paper.
Examples of products that contain at least 30% post-consumer recycled content are: printing and copy paper, envelopes, sticky notes, business cards, file folders, note pads, letterhead - even janitorial paper products.
Material adapted from “FACT SHEET: BUY RECYCLED PAPER!” by Susan Kinsella for the Recycled Paper Coalition, published by the Buy Recycled Business Alliance of the National Recycling Coalition
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