The environmental impact of paper
The Find the Fun Android App puts maps and extensive information on your phone. These work without needing an internet connection, thus removing the need to use printed maps and tourism pamphlets.
We had a look at the environmental impact of paper and were so staggered by it that we decided to write this post.
Did you know it takes 24 trees to make a tonne of paper? It takes 90 cubic meters of water1. That’s enough water to fill 1125 average bathtubs. You’d have to stand in a shower for about 8 days to use that much water!
A tonne of non-recycled paper takes 8200 kilowatt hours of power to make1. That’s enough to run an average Aussie house for 16 months2.
How much is a tonne of paper? Two thousands tourists each grabbing half a kilo of printed maps and information pamphlets equals a tonne. The Margaret River Region gets more than half a million tourists a year. That’s a lot of tonnes!
That is a lot of paper for a short holiday…
There is an even greater environmental impact. Over a third of paper ends up in landfills where it decomposes to produce methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. And a huge amount of energy goes into transporting the wood, pulp and resultant paper products. Two thirds of Australia’s printing paper is imported3.
And I haven’t even mentioned all the nasty chemicals used to make and print on paper.
We all need and use paper. Recycling paper reduces the environmental impact but it still uses lots of resources and energy. Our greatest personal impact to reduce this problem is to stop using paper whenever we can.
Electronic guide lessens the environmental impact
The Margaret River Find the Fun App helps in its own small way. It’s an alternative to printed material. Trees are saved. Energy is saved in not making the paper maps and pamphlets and transporting them. Less waste paper means less water waste and less greenhouse gasses.
We just thought we should point this out!
Sources:
- http://www.australianscience.com.au/environmental-science/paper-consumption-impact-in-australia/
- http://www.platinumelectricians.com.au/blog/power-needed-run-average-home/
- http://papercutz.planetark.org/documents/doc-301-paper-saver-2.pdf
Featured image photo credit: Paper Recycling via photopin (license)