Avoid paper to save environment? Myth or Reality?

We are urged to reduce the usage of paper - to that we can save the environment. The reduced usage of paper can be supplemented by the usage of digital media. 

Go paperless, go digital and save the environment. Is electronic communication more environment friendly?

Is paper really bad for environment?

Is paper production is the major reason behind emission of greenhouse gases?

Paper has evolved in 2000 years as a preferred medium of storing knowledge and communication. Now we are in the information age powered by the digital media. This is the first century of evolution of digital technology. Indeed, the digital technology has an upper edge when it comes with the speed of communication. Digital communication happens at the speed of light and it is not confined to text and pictures; rather it can transmit voice and videos. Digital media is dynamic and versatile.

Paper has limitations, it has mass, it requires space, it can travels at human pace. 

But, why paper is termed as the demon for the environment?

Paper is made from trees, and we get oxygen from trees. Hence, if you will print too much paper more trees need to be cut; with more and more greenhouse gases in emission and reduced oxygen supply, ecology will collapse and we all die.

Hence, avoid wastage of paper. 

This is a myth. Paper is not that bad after all. Paper is made from the trees which are systematically planted for this purpose. Paper manufactures systematically controls the planting, growing and logging of trees to maintain the balance in semi-natural forests. Natural forests are not logged down for making paper.

Most of the paper we use is the recycled paper. Papers can be recycled many times.

Paper is a good packaging material. It protects food and other articles in transportation.

Wood requirement for paper industry is just 13% of total wood produced. Construction and energy production consume higher amount of wood.

Paper is a perfectly recyclable product.

Why paper is projected as the devil. Why this narrative is built around paper?

Banks, financial institutions and other organizations prefer the usage of electronic means of communication as handling of paper requires these companies to deal with staffing requirements for material handling. Whereas, different levels of automation can be achieved if electronic means of communication is used.

The data centers which store this data and data communications equipment and our respective devices and screens also have electricity requirements. Collectively the amount of electricity consumed in transmitting, storing and receiving data is very much comparable to the total amount of electricity consumed in producing and printing papers.

In fact, the energy requirements of digital communication is on a higher side. The estimate for global energy requirement for digital mediums has a very rapid growth rate. As we have more cloud servers and data centers required to store the data we collectively produce everyday on internet.       

  

Why we have a false narrative for the paper? What is the intention behind?

Digital media is wonderful. Smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc are providing better alternative usage of paper. There is a psychological need for the companies in production of electronic gadgets to make their products more useful as well as desirable. Like the kindle and audible, attempt to gain more of the market share by converting paperback book readers into their tablet owners or application listeners.

If paper is projected as the villain; the electronic gadgets will have a better penetration. For businesses, being electronic has a direct cost benefit when compared with handling paper at various stages. For individuals, electronic gadgets are not capital investments, rather aspiration based purchases.

Finding more and more use cases of your aspirations is the icing on the cake. Paper is made a demon so that people are more inclined to use these electronic hardware.

These electronic hardware is interfaced with the wide world of internet and its influence on our daily lives. With different possible usages of digital technology, we are creating a prominent carbon footprint.

Remember, the piece of paper can be recycled. But the random click posted on Facebook or those in-numerous forgotten tweets are there forever stored in a data-center consuming theirs' share of electricity.

The bookmark placed in your book will remain a paper ready to be recycled. But the bookmark placed in your Kindle app has bytes of data and will consume its share of the electricity where it resides.

Unfortunately, our digital interfaces are increasing day after day; it is already much higher than the usage of paperwork we have replaced.

We can not roll back the digital technology influence in our life. We can hope that in future more and more electricity will be produced through renewable sources. You are reading this blog, this is possible because internet and the digital medium. A manuscript of this blog or the printed version might not reached you.

Paper is not a demon.

Try out to give a message on post card or greeting to your loved one. You will see a different happiness with shine in his/her eyes. This shine will be natural and is very different from the reaction to an instant message on WhatsApp.

This reaction doesn't have the dopamine.

To conclude, if you believe printing less of paper is your contribution to environment; using less of these gadgets and creating lesser online data will help the environment similarly. You will have lesser carbon footprints and sufficient savings of your time-currency.

Reference : https://www.twosides.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Two_Sides_Myths_and_Fact_V9.1-web.pdf

-Rajeev Srivastava