How Paper Shredding Goes Hand-in-Hand with Earth Day
The Canopy Project™ is an initiative of EarthDay.org™ and improves our shared environment by planting trees across the globe. Since 2010, they have planted tens of millions of trees worldwide. What a fantastic way to strengthen communities! And do you know what works hand-in-hand with planting trees? Responsible and secure paper shredding to make the most of the trees we do use!
Paper Usage
The average American uses more than 700 pounds of paper every year—the highest per-capita paper usage worldwide. On a global scale, pulp and paper consumption is expected to double between 2010 and 2060. Now would be a great time to start recycling all the paper we use, including the paper your old paper documents were printed on.
Paper Waste
It is estimated that 45% of paper printed in offices is no longer needed by the end of the day. As we know, it is vitally important that any paper that has Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on it must not go in the trash or the recycling bin; it should be destroyed by a shredding service. It is advisable that all discarded paper should be shredded, whether it may contain sensitive information or not. We explain why below.
How Does Shredding and Recycling Compliment Earth Day?
Landfill – According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), office copier paper, computer printouts, and notepads comprise the largest amount of paper product consumption and landfill waste. If all of your paper was recycled, whether it contained private information or not, it would significantly change the effect paper has on our planet. Here are a few ways to keep paper out of landfill sites:
- Use less paper and go digital.
- Have a NAID AAA Certified shredding company destroy all of your paper documents and ensure that they recycle 100% of it. Paper can be recycled several times over and made into a wide variety of products.
- Purchase recycled paper products.
Trees – The World Counts indicates that from 2001 to 2019, a total of 386 million hectares of forest were lost globally, representing almost a 10% decrease in tree cover. But how do you change this?
- Help plant trees by volunteering for, or financially contributing to, a tree-planting organization.
- Partner with a reputable, local shredding company that recycles 100% of all the paper they shred, because every ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees.
- Support businesses that support using less and recycling more.
Richards & Richards can work hand-in-hand with your business to help securely shred your documents for recycling, so your business will operate hand-in-hand with Earth Day. We are NAID AAA Certified and offer business shredding and residential shredding on a one-time, scheduled, or walk-in basis. Want to know more? Just give us a call at 615-242-9600 or complete the form on this page.
