Paper waste and our society

It’s truly amazing how much paper we waste as a society. I personally have to dispose of ten to twenty sheets a day at work. We recycle it, but I know many places of business and personal homes across the country don’t. I was thinking about the ATM paper the other day and how wasteful we are with that example. Millions of people visit the ATM every day, and the ATM paper rolls yield a receipt for the transaction that has just been made. And what do we all do? We throw it directly in the trash. I know that little piece of paper from the ATM seems insignificant, but taken together it adds up to a huge waste. I wish the bank could somehow text us as a receipt for our transactions and take ATM paper rolls out of the equation altogether. I wonder how many trees that would save.

Another item that people don’t even think about is bond paper. As a society, we believe that it is important to use thicker and heavier paper when we have important or official documents. I find this to be such a funny little anomaly of our society. A normal paper will not be enough, we need it to be thicker and with a more official look. Bond paper is not made from just any tree and the pulp from that tree, it is often made from eucalyptus trees, which helps make it thicker and more durable. Also, with the use of bond paper and paper for official business transactions, we also felt the need to make tons of copies of these pages so that everyone has one and everything related to the business that was conducted feels legitimate to everyone. involved. Instead, we could just scan the original bond paper that was signed or used for some kind of document and email it to everyone. These little wasteful habits in our society can have a big impact if we really look at them. I’m happy with the trend of electronic filing and paperless bank statements lately, but we should all go one step further. I know ATM paper may seem insignificant, but if we could actually see the waste that comes from all those rolls of ATM paper giving receipts across the country, it might shock us to change all these insignificant details of the business of our society. .