By Rafiqi Yusoff and Aidil Noor Azizul
As we speak to the need for reducing the amount of paper consumption on a daily basis, roughly around more than 199 tons of paper have been produced every 15 seconds since the demand for global consumption of paper is anticipated to double by 2030.
Combining all global forest types, a total of 386 million hectares is recorded from 2001 to 2019 indicating the loss of global forests with increase in paper production to escalate further into the pressure on our worlds forests which are already in a perilous state, and persistently aggravating.
Malaysia specifically, in spite of not vastly producing the amount of paper (the total capacity of pulp and paper production is over 1 million ton per year) compared to those largest paper producing countries like China, the United States, and Japan.
However, this is not a frivolous concern to our Malaysian tropical rainforests, taking into account that they are among the oldest tropical rainforests in the world.
Getting back on track, although the demand for paper production in the paper-making industry helps to secure economic growth, we should also take a look at its bleak outcome as paper production does not only cause deforestation, it brings about the paper waste problem.
It is a serious concern that we should really be focusing on as paper accounts for roughly 26 percent of total waste at landfills.
In Malaysia, over 57,000 tons of paper are thrown into landfills which can take up around 456,000 cubic meters of landfill and that is equivalent to chopping down about 680,000 trees of marketable size.
If we take a look at this issue and sleep on it, by any chance, who is responsible for all of these?
As consumers, we play our part in diminishing the worlds natural resources. Our excessive paper consumption can be tracked with papers ending up in the landfills creating a staggering amount of paper waste to fill our planet without us even realising it.
With that, we should bear in mind that paper comprises up to 25 percent of landfill waste and 33 percent of municipal waste.
Broadly speaking, it is common for us to actually deduce that the printing activity is one of the considered factors that gives rise to the paper waste problem.
We might wonder how printing activity is in fact a major result of paper waste. Printing is very routine to almost all industries namely education, health providers, publishing, or even banking and insurance. From printing mistakes, reports and billings, junk mails, and even to packaging which makes up â…“ or more of the trash.
The act of wasting paper itself leads to the demand of producing more papers. From this, it creates a larger chain of events.
With that being said, that is why paper waste is a serious concern as papers form a major part of the waste stream. Where they end up in drains and waterways causing other problems including flash floods and stagnant pools where mosquitoes breed.
These ultimately lead to other alarming issues like landslides, traffic congestion, and also disease.
Are we just going to stand idly by while knowing there are thousands of tons of papers still ending up at landfills and thousands of trees getting chopped down to produce more papers without proper regulation?
With all the paper waste problems and paper pollution that we are currently dealing with, we definitely could not reverse the damaging effects it has caused.
However, we are never too late to figure out the solution that should be done to save our planet.
In the case of paper waste, paper-recycling definitely should come across our mind as we are focusing on seeking more sustainable ways to produce paper so we no longer have to put extra burden on our beautiful life-giving trees.
Keep in our mind that a single tree produces enough oxygen for at least three people to keep them breathing.
Following this issue, paper recycling in fact, is among the best offering solutions to minimise the amount of paper waste. A study by the University of Southern Indiana shows that recycling one ton of paper can save roughly 17 trees from being cut down.
Other than that, it can also significantly lessen the quantity of materials being thrown into landfills everyday.
However in Malaysia, the paper recovery rate is still considered low at roughly 40 percent. There are only 100,000 tons out of 250,000 tons of newsprint a year recovered from the waste stream while a large balance is yet to be recycled.
Following this issue, we can know that Malaysians are not fully aware of the benefits of paper-recycling and how it surprisingly helps to save the planet by preventing more trees being cut down over the year.
We believe further emphasis regarding this issue can be addressed in our education as well as in the corporate sectors.
So, as university students or office workers, what can we actually do from our end to take the edge off the paper waste issue?
Other than recycling all our paper waste, we are also supposed to be a savvy consumer of paper. For both office workers and university students, reusing our paper is a must. For instance, if we have only used one side of the paper, dont just throw them away right after.
We can extend its shelf life by using another side of the paper or for a better and fun option, collecting and binding the unused papers together to make a notebook out of them! You can actually be amazed at how this small effort can be fascinating for a community engagement activity and saving the planet, both at the same time!
And if we already have a scanned copy of a file, do not print it anymore unless needed. At this point, we should take advantage of the latest technologies and devices we own like iPad, tablets, and smartphones to store our files and notes.
By doing this, not only we manage to reduce our paper intakes but also prevent unprecedented data loss due to mishandling of important documents and getting them lost in an abundant pile of papers at the office.
Thinking before printing can also do us a favour by eliminating unnecessary pages. If you have a compilation of pages needed to be printed, look for pages with less inputs you want to get on the papers and cut and paste them on separate documents together with other pages with similar problems.
Other than that, office workers are highly encouraged to use email instead of paper when communicating with their clients. Encouraging our friends or officemates to recycle their papers and to buy products with the least paper packaging can also greatly reduce the paper waste other than encouraging businesses to follow environment-friendly practices.
These small efforts, if we continuously make it as our part, will eventually be a remarkable contribution in the resolution of the paper waste problems that we are facing nowadays.
To this point, you might question that the paper waste issue will come to its end soon and reducing paper usage is predicted due to the digital communication and also the era of COVID-19 pandemic where humans begin to consider going paperless.
To respond to such a question, we believe that unfortunately, it is not going to happen as what you have thought since paper is still very important to cater to the demand of multifaceted industries.
And we highlight that the demand for paper is expected to double by 2030, and so will the amount of paper waste.
We are certain that paper waste issues in fact, emerged due to the humans negligence for taking its bleak outcomes for granted. To the extent that it has adversely affected our invaluable forests – trees that give off oxygen as well as protecting our planet from further natural disaster, particularly global warming.
Since for the most part, humans are responsible for it, why not embrace the fact that we are also the ones who should be taking actions to protect our home? As such, we firmly believe that it is never too late to reverse the damaging effects we are currently facing.***