|
|||||||
|
Sustainable Office Supplies Page Everyday we all use paper, pencils, pens, and computers without thinking of the impacts that these products have on the environment. Water, trees, minerals, and petroleum are all extracted from the Earth to make these tools of modern life. Every new product manufactured and consumed means that more of these resources are used up leaving less for future generations. By reusing products, buying recycled, and using fewer products you have the power to close the resource-consumption loop. Tread lightly and take less of a toll on the environment. Info: *Almost half of the trees cut in North America go to papermaking. One ton of recycled paper saves approximately 17 trees. *The chlorine bleaching process that is used to make paper white contributes dioxin, a carcinogen, to the environment. *Using 1 ton of recycled paper saves enough energy to power the average home for 6 months, 7000 gallons of water, keeps 60 pounds of pollution out of the air, and saves 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. *Although many tree-free papers and some recycled papers are more expensive than virgin paper, when the consumer compares the costs of paper she does not include the tax payer subsidies that the virgin paper industry recieves because the federal government owns more than 20% of the commercial timber acres in the U.S. Subsidies occur through road building, selling timber below market value, and subsidized energy and water costs on that land. *The remanufacturing of printer toner cartridges saves over 38,000 tons of plastic and metal from landfills. *The plastic used in each printer cartridge takes more than 10 centuries to decompose. *It takes more than 3 quarts of oil to produce a new cartridge, in 7 months remanufacturing saves 11 million gallons of oil- more than the Exxon Valdez spill. Products: Sustainable Paper Sources When purchasing recycled paper the most important criteria to keep in mind is the post consumer content of the paper. A paper with 100% post consumer content contains all recycled fiber while a paper with 30% post consumer content would contain a combination of recycled fiber and virgin fiber. Three good sources of 100% post consumer content paper that is also processed without chlorine bleach are:Eureka!100, Encore100, and Envirographics100. Most office supply stores carry recycled paper- check the package! Tree-free paper can come from a variety of sources the most common are kenaf and hemp but agricultural biproducts (such as straw) are now being used more frequently. These products are generally a little more than twice as expensive as recycled paper. A couple sources of paper containing kenaf are: Kenaf Content Copy Paper and Revision Kenaf 24# Bond. A 200 sheet "miniream" of 100% Hemp paper can be found at www.ahappyplanet.com. Options for Computer and Printer Reuse Dell and Gateway both offer refurbished computers for sale. They also have leasing options where you can own a computer for a period of time and then trade it back into the company. They then take care of the end of the product's life cycle. The StRUT Alliance is a program that people can donate computers to. They repair and recycle old computers to build new ones for distribution in schools. The students who perform the work get experience in building, repairing, and supporting computer. The website www.sharetechnology.com links computer donations with the needs of schools. For all around information of the environmental impact of computers, the recycling process, and buying/donating computers www.thegreenpc.com is an excellent source. When you order a new toner cartridge for your computer most companies provide free shipping for you to return your old cartridge for recycling. If that information is not available www.eco-office.com provides a list of laser and ink jet cartridge remanufacturers in your area. Misc. Office Goodies Woody Pens offer an alterative to your every-day disposable Bic. They are made through the reuse of wood by-products that come from sustained yield trees. They are also refillable and therefor can be reused indefinately. Ecowriter pencils provide a tree-free pencil. They are made from 100% post consumer cardboard and other paper scraps. The American Natural Pencil is another pencil alternative manufactured from sustained yield cedar. Mechanical pencils are another way to reduce the need to purchase as many pencils. Although they are made out of plastic they can be reused many, many times. The Green Disk takes unsold computer disks and erases the data on them. The disks are then sold as blank disks. It is the ultimate form of reuse. As of GreenDisk's 2nd Anniversary (Earth Day 1995), the company has recycled nearly 20 million pounds of software materials and well over 20 million diskettes! "White Out" and recycled paper clips are just a few more examples of office products that are available and better for the environment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get Involved- Put a stop to all of that junk mail that fills your mail box every day www.newdream.org/monthly/sep00.html The Rainforest Action Network has campaigns to stop logging old growth and other forests www.ran.org At LC SEED is working to get recycled paper in the school copiers- contact them to get involved. The American Lands Alliance is another organization fighting to protect the forest lands in the US www.americanlands.org |
||||||
|
|||||||