Even though we are currently living in the 21st century where technologies are more advanced and used everywhere, paper usage is still visible. For example, newspapers and notebooks.

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And most of these papers would end up in our landfills creating a staggering amount of paper waste. According to National Environment Agency (NEA, n.d.), their waste statistics shows that out of the total amount of waste generated, 13.98% comes from paper and cardboard.

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This has been the case as sometimes printed marketing materials such as posters, flyers, newsletters and programme schedules are still being used at the events. But, do you know that all these are affecting the environment?

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So how does it harm the environment?

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When we talk about printed marketing materials, it involves 2 types of things - Paper and Printing Ink.

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Paper

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Let’s first talk about papers.

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As we all know, papers are made from trees. And as we increase the paper usage, more trees will be cut down to produce more papers. And when more trees are being cut down, it may result in deforestation.

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Do you know that?

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To produce paper, it takes twice the energy used to produce a plastic bag (The World Counts, n.d.).

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Chemical involved in Manufacturing Process

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Furthermore, during the production of papers, chemicals such as the chlorine-based bleaches are used during the process (The World Counts, n.d.). This results in toxic materials being released into our water, air and soil. So when the paper rots, it emits methane gas which is 25 times more toxic than CO2 (The World Counts, n.d.).

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Printing Ink

Next, let’s talk about the ink on the paper.

Other than paper, the printer ink that we normally use(that is not eco-friendly) also harms the environment. This is often overlooked because while we want to print something, we tend to only think that “If i am reusing the used papers i am being environmentally friendly”. But that is not just the case. 

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Do you know that?

 

More than three quarts (2.8 litres) of oil is being consumed when producing a new laser cartridge. And as for inkjet cartridges, about three ounces (88.7 millimetres) of oil are required to produce the ink.

On top of that, our ink does not just come in a fluid form. It comes with its tank and cartridges. And according to our research, more than 375 million empty ink and toner cartridges are thrown out every year, and most of them end up in landfills(Gorman, n.d.).