Cost of taking action: £/$/€ FREE
Save paper and carbon emissions with this action
This action is for you to arrange for your utility companies, bank and credit card companies to send you your bills and statements through an online account page or by email. Virtually all of them are able to do this now.
When a company sends you a bill by post, it takes paper to print it, an envelope, and transport to get it to your home. Multiplied by millions of bills in each country, this is a big impact on our environment.
Instead, please “go paperless” on your bills and statements; you will be able to access them easily from your computer or smartphone and will save so much:
- the use of paper is reduced, no printed sheets and no envelopes needed
- this saves trees, water and energy
- the use of fuel to transport thousands of tons of post could also be saved, reducing carbon emissions
- chemical use and particulates generated through printing are reduced
Papermaking
Making paper is a water and energy demanding process. Firstly, trees are cut down and chipped into small pieces. Then huge amounts of water and heat, plus chemicals, are used to turn this into a fibrous “mash” to separate the wood into individual fibres. Yet more water is mixed in, sometimes along with recycled pulped paper and more chemicals, including bleaches.
This slurry is sprayed onto a moving flat wire screen where water drains out, and the fibres bond together. The resulting mix is then pressed through heavy rollers to squeeze out more water and smooth the paper, which is then dried using heated rollers which use large amounts of electricity.
Finally, the paper is trimmed and wound into massive heavy rolls which have to be transported for further processing, such as cutting to office standard sizes or the manufacture of packaging.
All of this is very energy intensive.
Take action
It’s easy, just go through this list and check online, most have a “go paperless” option involving just a single click!
- electricity bill
- gas bill
- water bill
- broadband and phone
- bank and building society statements
- credit card bills
- pension statements
- mortgage statements
- insurance certificates and documents
… and lots more.
Simples!