Paper, Paper, Still Everywhere
In this day and age, when digital practices have been made easy to adopt, why is there a need for everything to be printed on paper?
Bills, promotional flyers, shopping receipts (we get two copies if we pay with a card), contracts that we'll read only once, even namecards. Unless the person has zero social presence, it's not difficult to find his/her contact information online.
In 2014, 12 million tonnes of paper or cardboard was generated in Singapore, and only 52 per cent of it was recycled. Twelve million tonnes is an estimated 288 million trees cut. If one tree can provide oxygen for four people a day, 288 million trees can provide oxygen for more than 1 .1 billion people a day. For reference, we have about 7.6 billion people on Earth.
Using a digital device is therefore a significant move to reducing deforestation. Scribbling on a digital device is now almost the same as writing on paper -- take it from this former magazine editor whose job was to create a print magazine. Part of my job was to wait for ozalids, and make changes in red ink. That was my favourite part because that process was cathartic. But instead of getting my fix on paper, I can now get it via a touchscreen.
I love printed matter as much as (okay, maybe slightly more than) the next person, and I still give myself some indulgences -- I'd still buy a book if I really want to collect it. I've come to find that I value printed matter in a different way now.
Tip no. 1
GO PAPERLESS
Be open to using digital devices like the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Kindle. You might find yourself loving them more than you thought you would -- I did. The iPad has markup functions on different apps, like Keynote and Notes.
Receipts I've collected over the year -- this is just a handful
Tip no. 2
SAY NO TO RECEIPTS
You can refuse to take the print-outs of your receipts. (Or buy less, but we'll get to that.) Applepay, Apple Music, iCloud already offer digital receipts -- it is their default. Did you know that Apple was the first to implement this in 2005. Kudos to them for taking that first step.
