Paper waste: are we barking up the wrong tree?

The mantra is: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle – in that order. While all the focus lately is on recycling, shouldn’t we concentrate on reducing the paper trail.

What is your paper costing the environment?

The production of paper is the biggest contributor to mass deforestation. Deforestation impacts man-made climate change, causing greenhouse gases that are destroying the ozone layer. All this sounds like a lot of eco greenwash mumbo jumbo, but let’s have a look at the impact of paper alone.

The American Forest & Paper Association claims that paper manufacturing is the third largest user of fossil fuels world-wide. This is staggering since most people tend to think that paper is fairly harmless and mostly recyclable. True, paper is easy enough to recycle but unfortunately we need the man power to get the paper to the right recycling facility and due to a lack of actual people doing the recycling, most paper still ends up in landfills.

Besides the post-production problems that paper causes, the production process is a major cause of air and water pollution. Paper manufacturing releases nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Let’s take a closer look at these culprits:

Nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide causes acid rain. Acid rain is the result of nitrogen and sulphide particles in the air that reacts with the water molecules and causes precipitation / rain with excess levels of hydrogen. This has a very destructive effect on plants and aquatic life.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas directly responsible for climate change. Waste water from the manufacturing process contains some solids, organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. These two nutrients, when merged with fresh water bodies, cause overstimulation of phytoplankton which depletes the water bodies of oxygen and in turn has an adverse effect on fish and water-animal population.

Not only does the manufacturing and use of the paper cause major environmental damage, these sheets of paper are almost always printed. Ink and toners used on paper contain volatile organic compounds, oils and heavy metals weighing in at an average of 22% of recycled paper pulp. This waste sludge ends up on landfills and eventually in the oceans.

Unfortunately it is as yet impossible to live completely paper-free. You will still need to have physical copies of some important documents. However, you will be able to get rid of almost all paper in your home and office and actually have much more control over your documents. Ridding your home, office and environment of paper is relatively easy and will actually simplify your life rather than complicate it. It takes an initial time investment – about 2 days– but after that, if you have a system in place, you’re home free. You will also need to buy some equipment but in the long run you will save thousands.

In practise we have been filing every piece of paper only to later frantically rummage through different sized pages to find the right one. Imagine trying to do this if you don’t even know what the right one looks like. Going paper free means this is all in the past and you can access and retrieve any file with a click. From there you can print it, fax it or e-mail it to any recipient or multiple recipients, make changes or just read through. And you don’t even have to be in front of your PC, making use of a services like Paperfreeweb, you can do all of this from your smart phone or tablet. It’s now becoming easier to imagine a paper-free world. With these easy steps, you can be well on your way

5 Easy steps to become (relatively) paper-free.

1.      Think the process through:

In order to make this a sustainable change, you have to decide what kind of system will be the one for you. It has to fit completely into your lifestyle because you are the one that is going to have see it through. You will need to make some permanent adjustments and you might think that sounds like effort, but once everything is organised and you start reaping the benefits, the few small changes you’ve had to make will be completely forgotten.

There are a few ways to go about this. Firstly you will have to decide exactly what you will want to scan and what will just be discarded. The reason why this thought process is so important is because it is going to determine what scanner and software you need. There is literally a scanner for every need out there, some are multi purpose and some are very specific. For home use you will probably want a scanner that can scan different sizes up to about A4. You could use a flatbed scanner but a sheet-fed scanner is so much more convenient. If you are going to scan the documents as they arrive, a flatbed will be sufficient. But if you are like me and let them accumulate for a few days, a sheetfed will be better suited to you because you can scan quite multiple documents at once. There are also a magnitude of portable scanners on the market. I like the mi-wand from Avision. It is battery operated, so it allows you to scan on the go. You can scan straight to a memory card, you don’t need to be near a computer and the wand fits easily into a handbag or man bag

2.     Go get your kit:

I suggest you talk to a scanner sales person. Shane at Firstcoast really knows his business and will help you choose exactly the right scanner for your needs and budget. Choosing the right equipment is a crucial step, because first of all, you’ll have to fork out some money and secondly, the wrong scanner/ software will annoy you and could cause you to give up. Speaking of software, very few people realise what amazing products are out there. The latest technology OCR (optical character recognition) software makes any scanned document searchable. Even images with text inside them – if you see a poster by the side of the road and you want to remember the details, instead of writing down details, you can take a picture with your phone, send it to your computer and the software will be able to read any text stored in the photo. Apart from the scanner software, you might want to invest in fax software. Some people will need documents from you every now and again or they might want to send you copies of physical documents. A lot of companies still believe in copiers and fax machines and use them often. With the right software, you will be able to send documents your computer to a fax number as well as receive faxes on your computer. You can manage your faxes and documents bay virtually “stapling” them together or automatically sort them as you scan them or as they are received.

3.      Clear out some space

This is the fun part. Get rid of all the junk that’s been accumulating in your filing cabinet. If you can, weigh it before you start for that extra satisfaction factor, knowing you are getting rid of a nice sizable pile of dead trees. Dedicate a weekend to this step and do it properly – the result should be a clear neat space that inspires you and gets you all amped up for your paper-free journey. Scan everything that’s important, throw away everything else, make a scrapbook/album for keepsakes and keep it on your bookshelf where it can actually be appreciated. You will start feeling lighter as you see the pile diminish before your eyes. Throw everything in a box – remember to keep general recycling apart from sensitive documents you’d want to shred or burn. If it is winter and you have a fireplace, it is very liberating to start a fire with all your useless paper. Sell your filing cabinet on the gumtree or craigslist for some other sucker who’s is still messing about with hundreds of bits of paper. You may now start feeling all smug and impressed with yourself – that’s fine.

4.     Keep incoming paper to a minimum

Think about all the different avenues paper follows into your home / office. Try and think of ways to avoid getting physical documents.

• Junk mail: Put a “NO JUNKMAIL” sign on your post box. Companies must heed these signs according to law. They are usually quite compliant with this rule since they realise they are not going to get your business by making you mad. If you still get junk mail, follow it up, phone the companies involved and tell them to please brief their delivery people on this rule again. Slowly your junk mail should decrease. If you are worried about missing some special sale, subscribe to that company’s electronic mailing list or look out for in store advertisements.

• Switch to electronic bills, on-line banking, and request that your statements are e-mailed rather than posted. Sometimes you will have to request this a few times. This will be frustrating but sooner or later with perseverance the message will hit home. Just scan all statements and bills that are still arriving in your mailbox.

• Use on-line phone directories

• Subscribe to digital magazines and view it online or on your smart phone

• If you want to make a note, start using your phone / tablet for that, once you get acquainted with all the apps you have at your disposal, you’ll realise that it is much more convenient when you have everything you need right in the palm of your hand.

• Use smart phone boarding passes when travelling

• Read news on-line

• Find out about all the apps available that could assist you in your paper-free endeavour e.g. “Paper by fifty three” Find apps on  http://lifehacker.com/tag/apps or search Google for useful apps

• Watch what you buy. Is it possible to change to an option with less wrapping?

• Ditch paper towels and cut up old t-shirts or bath towels for rags.

• If you have to print – print both sides

5.      Organise your electronic system

Now that you’ve been using your system for a few weeks, think about how it can be improved. Do you actually ever need to retrieve the information? Do you need to access some of it regularly? Consider safety. Your documents can be stored on your computer in files that you set up yourself or online or “in the cloud” At the moment these are all secure options. If you are unsure or in doubt about safety, speak to an expert. The team at Firstcoast will definitely be able to help you with the pros and cons of all the available options. Back up. Your computer might crash or get stolen so back up your filing immediately after clearing out your filing cabinet – save everything on a flash drive and keep it in a safe place. Set aside a time every month to back up – not only your filing, but photo’s, work, assignments etc. An easy way to back up, is by using one of the many cloud services, paperfree web has an auto sync tool to continuously backs up to your paperfree web account 

Unfortunately, you will have to keep some documents. Legal documents and active contracts – especially those with signatures on – should be kept. But by all means, scan those documents too so that you can stash the physical ones where you don’t need to access them regularly. Should you ever want to verify something from those documents, they will be easily accessible.

It’s worth talking to a digitising expert to find out what kind of products and software is available to organise your tax files. You should be able to scan your tax related invoices and have the option of giving your tax consultant access to that folder whenever he needs them for your tax return.

Paper you need to keep:

• - Proof of cost basis in property, i.e., so that if you inherited it, you can properly calculate capital gains or estate taxes. Also, deed searches and property transfers might require keeping records for 100 years or more.

• - Proof of purchase, ownership, transfer. (property)

• - Proof of deductions for tax, estate, gift, pension plan returns. To be safe, I’d keep those records for 10 years

There you have it. Once you’ve gotten rid of paper in your home, try sorting out your office, you will save hours of productive time. If you are tech-savvy, or knows someone who is, you might even be able to automate some of the more mundane steps in your day to day life.

Good Luck and bravo for giving it a go. The earth and your kids will thank you for it