THE obsession with merely putting our vocal cords in trouble and hurting our legs to join this rally or that against climate change seems a farce when we are incapable of walking the talk.

While digitalisation is becoming the norm, we are yet to get out of the habit of printing single-sided official letters. Do we really think we can ever go paperless with this mindset? The ecological impact of the paper industry is multifaceted, including, inter alia, deforestation, water-energy intensiveness, air emissions and solid waste generation.

Delving a little into facts and figures may help underscore our apathy towards environmental concerns related to paper manufacturing, utilisation and disposal. A tree that takes years to grow can only produce, on average, 17 reams of paper, releasing about 50kg of carbon dioxide; an A4-size paper requires 10 litres of water per sheet, and, last but not least, paper accounts for around 26 per cent of total waste at landfills.

Putting things in monetary terms, it is amazing that an already bleeding economy like ours has the courage to shoulder the cost of sheets of papers being wasted on a daily basis in offices across the land.

If doing away with paper does not make sense to us, we can at least normalise the ‘print on both sides’ option. The said practice, if it becomes the routine, will put some substance into our environmental commitments. This will not cost the reader any additional stamina, I bet.

Rabia Naz
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2022