Conserve Paper

There is excessive wastage of used paper – upto 900 tons a day in Delhi and all of us are responsible for it. Every month 1.25 crore invitation cards are coming out of the card market at Chawri Bazar Delhi. Of the total waste paper generated in India, only 50 % reaches the recycling industry. 10% - crumpled sheets, pamphlets, torn posters, writing paper, notebooks, books , newspaper , magazines, packaging materials etc are thrown in the garbage where it rots as it becomes wet and gets mixed with biodegradable garbage; in the name of secrecy about 15% is burnt, 25% is erratic paper wastage during elections, strikes, scams etc. During each MP and MLA elections, around 6-7 tons of waste paper is generated everyday.  Every year during Diwali at least 250 tons of paper gets burnt and to wrap 50,000 Christmas trees alone 8000 tons of wrapping paper is used.

To make a ton of paper seventeen trees need to be cut down. Forests are among the richest expressions of life on our planet. Trees are, of course, the most visible part of a forest. But the other living things that depend on the habitat they create are just as important: the animals the birds and the insects – and the flower the plants and the fungi. And  how could more of these could survive without the tiny lichens and spores and microbes that ultimately drive the very engine of life. When we cut down the trees , all these living beings are destroyed, so does our life  support system, the ground water recedes, the soil erodes and the amount of deadly carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere.

The largest Waste paper production sector is Packaging and finishing units of almost all industries. Printing industry is the second largest sector producing waste paper.  At present only five percent of these industries have formed direct links with recycling units, the rest dump this precious resource.

But if waste paper is remade into pulp and this pulp is substituted for a part of the total wood pulp required for making paper, it saves trees.

Remember one tonne of hand made recycled paper saves  3 tonnes of wood, 100 cubic metres of water, creates Rs. 40,000 in wages, saves 6 big trees producing  life giving oxygen, enriching soil and conserving water.