Reduce Your Paper Footprint
Take a moment and think about all the paper that is a part of your daily routine. Paper comes from mature trees that add nutrients to our soil, clean our water and purify our air of carbon. Replacing these simple household items with reusable options, or ones made out of recycled content, can dramatically reduce the number of trees that are being harvested every year.
Paper Towels
*If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of virgin paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees.
Napkins
*If every household in the U.S. replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins (250 count) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees.
Reusable Bags
The amount of plastic bags used annually worldwide is stunning. To produce such a large quantity of bags consumes resources like energy, water and oil. Reduce your impact by investing in reusable bags and spare our landfills and wildlife this waste.
*The U.S goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. Less than 3% are recycled.
*Each plant that produces plastic emits an average of 300-500 gallons of waste water per minute.
Many grocery stores offer reusable bags and a discount of $.05-$.10 for every use. Used once a week, an investment in 5 bags (with a $.10 discount) would be a savings of $26 a year.
Source: Earth Island Institute, www.reusablebags.com, fast facts
