So once upon a time bills came in little white envelopes from the post man and were returned the same way. Can you imagine how many trees that takes? I know this is a no brainer now days, but not so long ago that is how we did it. Some still do come that way. Paying your bills online helps save thousands of trees and countless hours of people working to follow the paper trail so to speak.
Stats from Wikipedia:
About 35% of municipal solid waste (before recycling) by weight is paper and paper products.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that recycling causes 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution than making virgin paper.[15] Pulp mills can be sources of both air and water pollution, especially if they are producing bleached pulp. Modern mills produce considerably less pollution than those of a few decades ago.
- The average per capita paper use worldwide was 110 pounds (50 kg).[20]
- It is estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper.
- Recycling 1 short ton (0.91 t) of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7 thousand US gallons (26 m3) of water, 3 cubic yards (2.3 m3) of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil (84 US gal or 320 l), and 4,100 kilowatt-hours (15 GJ) of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for six months.[21]
- Although paper is traditionally identified with reading and writing, communications has now been replaced by packaging as the single largest category of paper use at 41% of all paper used.[22]
- 115 billion sheets of paper are used annually for personal computers.[23] The average web user prints 28 pages daily.[24]
- Most corrugated fiberboard boxes have over 25% recycled fibers[citation needed]. Some are 100% recycled fiber.
So next time you get a bill in the mail, think again about going digital!
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