Office Tree Hugging the Simple Way

Going green does not mean you have to chain yourself to a tree, but you can increase the pitiful amount of office paper that is recycled annually.  A typical U.S. office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year–roughly the equivalent of one tree!  8 million tons of office paper is used annually in this country, with less than 9% of that amount being recycled.  

Easy things you can do: 

• Keep a scrap paper tray on your desk.  Destined for the recycling bin, pieces can be used to write your daily to-do list or doodle while brainstorming.
• Place a recycling bin in a high traffic area in the office.
• Print on both sides of the paper for drafts and other non-appearance critical material.  
• Urge your purchasing department to buy recycled paper.  Recycled paper uses 90% less water and half the energy in production.

One last thought, take your own coffee mug to the office.  Close your eyes and imagine how big of a pile would be created from just one year’s worth of your disposable paper coffee/tea cups….