There are 49,896 students at the UBC Vancouver campus alone this year, plus another 14,118 prof and staff. So approximately 64,000 people! Let’s imagine that they use on average 50 sheets of paper a week , or 3 reams of paper, 3 packages of 500 sheets, a year (apprximate figure). On average, a pine tree provides around 17 reams of paper. To satisfy the needs of all people on campus, we would need 11, 294 trees! A forest, the size of 24 football fields approximately. And those trees would need at least 15 years to mature.
What about that innocent sheet of paper? Not so innocent after all when we just take time to think… Well many researches have tried to find an alternate to trees for making paper. A Winnipeg based company, Prairie Pulp and Paper Inc., has developed a new straw-based paper, branded “Step Forward”. The paper is actually made of leftover agricultural products, which would probably go to waste: 80% wheat straw after it has been harvested. This idea was born 20 years ago and went through 14 years of research and development, before “Step Forward” was born. It was finally produced commercially and launched in Canada in 2012! I personally love the idea. Here we are just double dipping: the wheat is still harvested for providing food and the leftover straw is used for making paper. And our farmers will increase their revenues.
So let’s keep recycling, let’s refrain from printing when there is no need for it and let’s make the right choice. Let’s leave our trees in the forests, let’s tree purify the air we breathe and let’s use tree-free paper! It is available at all Staples! And only for about a dollar more a ream! Not even the price of a latte!
http://stepforwardpaper.com