Going paperless

The San Diego newspaper has a story about how tough it’s been for us to cut back on the use of paper, with a mention of Asheville:

Francisco Rodriguez was moving giant bundles of paper at EDCO’s recycling center in Lemon Grove last week, but San Diegans are still sending a huge volume of recyclable paper to landfills.
The idea came from his wife, who refused to give up more of her laundry room for boxes of old documents that Miller didn’t have space for at his Encinitas office.

He started to eliminate paper by scanning documents into his computer, limiting his copies and asking himself at every turn whether having a printed page was necessary.

Today, Miller figures he has trimmed his paper use by 90 percent or more – saving money, time and space. Each of his case files went from more than 500 pages to about 30. He estimates that the annual saving amounts to roughly 7,000 pages.

In retrospect, Miller said, “I take a certain amount of pride in not wasting resources, particularly where I can get all these other benefits.”

Thanks to the “green” era of environmental consciousness nationwide, conservationists are finding it easier to spread their message against paper waste. Some of their efforts will be highlighted at the EarthFair celebration today in Balboa Park.

“There is a resurgence by organizations and individuals to reduce paper consumption, and a trend toward people understanding how being more efficient is good for the bottom line and issues like climate change,” said Joshua Martin at the Environmental Paper Network, an alliance of conservation groups in Asheville, N.C. The coalition tries to reduce pollution from paper production and minimize paper consumption.