Environmentally Friendly Writing Tips

Writing tips that help the environment!

My post today is part of a community action called Blog Action Day. This year, the focus in on the environment, and over fifteen thousand blogs are participating. For my contribution, I’d like to share writing tips that will help writers to contribute to conservation and the environment by saving paper.

Why is it important to conserve paper? Many people believe that by saving paper, they are also saving trees, forests, and other woodlands. While there is some truth to this, the main reason that it’s important to save paper is to lessen the amount of waste we are dumping into our landfills. According to Paper University:

“Helping to reduce the amount of paper in landfills is an important task. Since each of us uses an average of 700 pounds of paper products per year, paper makes up almost a third of the material which goes into landfills.”

That’s a lot of paper resulting in far too much waste. So, without further ado, I bring you…

10 Writing Tips for Saving Paper, Trees, and Landfill Space

1. Recycle all used paper products.
2. Purchase and use recycled paper products.
3. When writing in a notebook or journal, write on both sides of every page.
4. When printing documents or manuscripts, use double-sided printing.
5. Get into the habit of doing as much writing as possible on your computer or laptop. Even if you’re more comfortable writing longhand, give it a try and make a genuine effort to switch to electronic writing.
6. Don’t print unless absolutely necessary. Practice working through your first draft edits and revisions on the screen.
7. Purchase a PDA, such as a Blackberry phone, which you can use for storing ideas and notes instead of jotting them down on a pocket notebook or other paper scraps.
8. Conversely, when you do need to jot down an idea, use those paper scraps! Keep them in a basket or box on your desk so you can always find them.
9. Be part of the e-mail revolution. Use e-mail whenever possible for written communications and submissions.
10. Encourage others to do the same! Whenever possible, let people know that you practice paper conservation. Tell them why and how, and encourage them to conserve, recycle, and write consciously too!

Do you have any environmentally friendly writing tips that writers can use to help conserve paper products and preserve our planet? Please share in the comments.