Saving Money While Saving The Planet

The third most energy intensive industry as Jen and Joey state is the paper industry, you can learn more here as well. The reason being that it takes natural gas, electricity, and coal to process wood pulp into paper.  That's not adding in the amount of carbon that trees reduce each year that will be lost and the amount of oxygen they would have released.

There are some areas we may not have control over such as the amount of paper used in your child's classroom or at your job.  But at home we can control how much paper we use.

Let's look at our home office first.  Starting with a printer, do you think you need one?  I don't own one, which eliminated the knee-jerk reaction to hit the print button.  When computers first became common and affordable for most households the word was we would become a paperless society.  Instead, we are using more paper than before we owned a computer. Just think about that a moment. Before we owned a computer we used less paper. So do we really need to have a hard copy?

There are many ways to eliminate the need to print.

1. Use a flash drive to store and back up important documents
2. Email information rather than print it off to share.  My son is an author who asks me to read over and do an initial edit. He sends his drafts as an attachment on an email, I look it over making any necessary corrections and email it back to him.  No paper is used.
3. If you are wanting to print something off the internet, bookmark it and come back to it in a week or two and see if it is still that important.

When you add up the personal cost of your home office, the cost of a printer, paper and frequent ink refills (which is less expensive and better for the environment than buying a new cartridge each time) this can add up to a much larger cost than the cost of a flash drive or two.  I bought one flash drive for $10 and still have plenty of room on it.

What to do when you really do need to print a document?  I go to the library where I am charged $.10 per page or stop by a neighbor or family member where I drop a couple of quarters on their table. 


One investment that can save you money would be in a scanner.  When you have important papers, scan them onto your computer then back them up on a flash drive.  Once scanned you can shred the papers using these scissors which cost $18 at Restoration Hardware and are much cheaper than a shredder which will use electricity to operate.

What to do with your shredded documents?  Add them to your compost or in the bottom of plant pots for added drainage. You can also use them to pad packages for shipping or moving to protect items from damage saving the need for plastic or Styrofoam peanuts.

Other things you can do at home to save on paper include

1. Eliminating paper towels and napkins; use cloth.  Keep a bin of cut up old clothes, sheets and other fabrics for cleaning.  Tee shirts are great for this.
2. Eliminate paper tissues for nose by using handkerchiefs.  I find my nose doesn't get as irritated with cloth.  Think about it. Those tissues, even ones with lotion are made from wood.  Does this sound gentle for your skin?
3. Stop buying magazines and cancel the subscription to the local newspaper. You can read both magazines and newspapers online or on your tablet, iPhone/iPad and android now.  Some are free others cost a fraction of the printed version.
4. Stop buying prepackaged foods.  Buy more in bulk and save on the cardboard (which is a paper product) and plastic at the same time.
5. Stop catalogs and junk mail.  
6. Set up e statements, billings and payments to avoid receiving bills in the mail.  Don't you hate going out to get your mail only to find bills?  Plus by setting up your bank statements for online viewing you will reduce the risk of identity theft if someone should get into or steal your mail.  Think it can't happen to you?  We had a mail person who would go through the mail he was hired to deliver and save the things he wanted to read on his lunch break.  When we finally received our mail we would find food stains on them. Birthday cards fro relatives would be returned to us after the cash or checks were removed. It can happen to anyone.
7. Stop using disposable (paper) plates. It really take that long to wash a few dishes and it's so much better for the environment and your pocketbook.  Yes, when you have company it does take a bit longer but what impression do you think it makes to serve company on paper plates?  Everyone likes a good sturdy plate to eat from. I share my dishes with family members when expecting company to avoid having to purchase extra dishes for those rare times they need them, and vice versa.

I know the idea of eliminating paper towels seems like the hardest.  How will you drain fried foods? What about bacon, if you still eat meat?  Do what past generations did, they saved the grease from cooking in the fridge for frying foods in rather than buying oil or Crisco for this purpose.  You can also feed the juices (grease) to your dog, if you have one. Our vet recommended this practice for our dog's coat.  You can also rinse the bacon in hot running water, drain the pan of the grease then return the bacon to the pan for another half a minute. You will never know the difference and neither will your family.

Which paper product do you think is the hardest to remove from your house?