Tips on How to Save Paper Waste

Many people think up ways to save on products the use of which can be detrimental to the environment. By instigating sustainability procedures into your lifestyle, it is possible to reduce your use of paper, thus saving trees as well as saving waste from going into landfill.  Here are several ways to save on paper usage.

• Undo presents carefully so you can re-use the paper for the next present you give someone else. Keep the wrapping and ribbons to reuse too.
• Keep those strong envelopes that arrive in the mail and use them as needed. Simply glue the new address over your old one, then bend and staple the ends together, since the glue on them is no longer usable.

• When giving cards to family members, don’t write on the envelopes, then you can reuse them for letters or for notepaper.
• Better still, send ecards and email to your friends instead of writing a letter.
• Open up white envelopes that you get in the mail and use the inside of them for note paper. If you want to be fancy, cut them into rectangles or squares and staple them together at one end onto a piece of cardboard the same shape, then glue a magnet to the back. You can then place it on the fridge for your grocery notes. Add a small pen or pencil tied on through a hole in the top. In fact, if you are artistic, this would make a nice present if you drew a little picture on each page.
• Keep larger paper that is only printed on one side for the children to draw or scribble on. It’s way cheaper than purchasing a scribble book.
• If you must purchase paper for drawing, get an A4 ream of printer paper. It is much cheaper than a sketch book or scrap book.
• Keep birthday cards and give them to each other the next year.
• Purchase cheaper $1 cards from post offices or other stores that keep them. You may not save on paper, but you’ll save on costs.
• Use cardboard or shredded paper as compost in the garden. Cardboard boxes make great mulch to keep weeds down. You may have to anchor it down with stones until it rots, as it could blow away. Keeping it wet will soon see it rot.
• Before using them in the garden, let the kids and pets have fun playing in and with larger boxes.
• Keep shoeboxes to either store your shoes in or use as Lego or small toy storage.

Once you start thinking about how to save paper, you’ll most likely come up with some more good ideas. Share them with your friends so recycling paper becomes even more popular.