Sustainability what it means to me.. 3 of n

Old Notebooks

As a school going boy, the empty pages in the notebooks at the end of the year were removed carefully and assembled in a stack. Several such notebooks yielded some significant amount of ruled paper which then got carefully bound with a thread and ended up as a rough note book for the next school year.  

When I started doing this for my daughter, twenty years later, she was reprimanded by her teacher to use a new notebook for her rough work.  What has changed from the past? Is it just a fad or fashion to be called sustainable but not practice it from the core?

Image courtesy bplanet / FreeDigitalphotos.net

Computer stationery

In the times when I was a tenth grader, computers were a luxury and PC's did not exist. They required large rooms and were a source of envy for most. Printers were huge and they used reams and reams of perforated paper for the output - (the monitors as we know then today also did not exist.) The backs of these papers were blank and the printed side was ruled. It could have been other way around but I cannot recollect now. Dad would bring these home after the computer department would be finished with these printouts and they were "raddi" or waste for them and Dad would collect them from office and I would practice my math sums on them.

To this day, I insist that the prints taken from the printers today are at least used on both the sides before they are discarded as there is at least a 50% saving on the paper consumption. Down the line this saves trees and forests.

Printing

I remember the day I bought my first printer twenty years back. Since then, I have always been conscious of how and when to print. One of the more “sustainable” ways that I use is

• Use the other blank side of printed paper.
• If you are just printing for reading, try printing two pages on the same page. This way you actually end up saving much more than 50% but I won’t bother you with the math.
• Use refilled cartridges for your everyday printing. I know the printer companies are going to frown on this but then it is more sustainable as the cartridges don’t end up in a trash can and someone gets a job refilling your cartridges and you get a cheaper print.

Sustainabilty is not a fashion or a plaque on a building, its a way of life and an attitude