I hope you've been enjoying traveling on DART, the TRE, and The-T this summer!

If you missed last month’s article, with travel tips and directions on how to use public transportation, you can find it here.

Saving paper is another one of my “green” passions.

According to the Forest Stewardship Council, the U.S. is the largest market for paper products in the world, producing 90 million tons of paper annually and, in-turn, consuming about 100 million tons.

Unfortunately, paper production requires a great deal of water and trees, two of our most important resources. However, there are many things we can each do to help.

Evaluate your printing choices

Reducing the amount of printing you do is one way to save paper. I find I can save money on ink, as well! Consider a few things before you print.

• Necessity: Do I really need to print this? If I just need an address, for example, I could jot that down on a sheet of scratch paper.

• Print preview: Using the “Print Preview” option helps me verify I’m printing the right thing.

• Change your font: I've switched to the Century Gothic font.

According to an April report by Wisconsin Public Radio, the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay has switched the default font on its e-mail system from Arial to Century Gothic. The university says the change sounds minor, but it will save money on printer ink when students print out e-mails in the new font.

You can choose Century Gothic for your word processing, as well. You might also consider adjusting your margins if there is more than one page to print.

• Duplexing: This is printing front and back on each page.

Some higher-tech machines have that option already, but you can also choose it as the default option. On my simple printer at home, I either use the clean side of an old page (like a one-sided flyer from my kids’ school) or I feed the paper back through, so it prints on both sides of one sheet.

Cut Down on Unwanted Publications… and Clutter

Another way to save trees, while also reducing clutter in your home, is to address the following 3 issues:

Unwanted “Briefings”

If you want to stop your Dallas Morning News “Briefings,” the free publication delivered by Belo, you can cancel online here or by calling 214.977.8333.

Unwanted Phone Books

According to Yellow Pages Goes Green, millions of phone books hit American doorsteps unsolicited every year, to the tune of more than 19 million trees. If you don't want your copies, you can contact the following companies and tell them you want to “Opt Out.”
Verizon at 1.800.888.8448
AT&T at 1.800.792.2665 or online here.

Unwanted Junk Mail

Tired of receiving unsolicited catalogues and other junk mail? I've had success calling up the companies that send me junk and telling them to take me off of their mailing list.

Most companies don’t want to waste their money sending you something you’re not going to look at, so they cooperate.

The city also has a useful list of tips for stopping junk mail.
You'll find it on the sanitation page by clicking here.

A few other paper saving ideas

These might cost extra, unfortunately, but they're great if you can afford them.

• Buy recycled toilet paper, paper towels, facial tissues, etc.

Seventh Generation, for example, sells quality, soft toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper (minimum 80% post-consumer).

• Buy compostable Bagasse plates, cups, etc. instead of paper or Styrofoam. Bagasse is the sugarcane fiber that remains after extraction of juice from sugarcane.

Sugarcane is not only an annually renewable resource, but it can be turned into products normally made from plastic or paper. I use Bagasse plates when I need disposables and have found them to be very sturdy. I have seen Bagasse plates in smaller quantities at Green Living and Whole Foods Market.

Local company, Eco Dallas, also sells Bagasse in larger quantities. Several other companies offer their products on the Internet, as well.

• Buy recycled paper. When you buy notebooks, notebook paper, or computer paper, make a selection that's been recycled and made without chlorine bleach.

These are just some of the ways that we can all work together to reduce our paper usage.

I hope you find these tips useful, and I encourage you to get creative and find even more ways to save!