How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

Dr Rik — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:31:48 GMT

I have a practice management program, so no paper patient records at all. Many of my receipts are saved in a computer file. Everything is backed up. Some Dinosaurs get upset with me when I ask if I can e mail instead of faxing information. Even much of my research references and reading is on computer. Not much paper here

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

T_rex — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:00:43 GMT

Another issue with paper which is largely overlooked is CHLORINE BLEACHING. Those pristine white reams of copy paper have been made so beautifully white for you, with Chlorine. The result is severe contamination of the waters of our planet with highly toxic chloro-carbon compounds, Dioxins. It's the reason why it's no longer safe to eat fish. Think of that every time you re-stock you printer...

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

fredh — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:22:09 GMT

I live in a big timber area ,Government and environmentist have made logging imposable . Logging created hundreds of good paying jobs so men could support their familes. These logs were use to build many homes in the U.S., now in order for the mills that are left to stay open , they must import logs from Canada, does that make sense. Then every summer the forest catch on fire and destroy millions of acres of healthy forest, killed lots of animals,and really pollute the air over north america, but thats ok thanks to the enviromentist . PAPER is made from TREES.

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

fredh — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:01:34 GMT

How can any office go paperless when 85% of all office employees are women , women use 4 times more paper then men , and I mean toilet paper . Maybe it would be a good idea to go back to 1970 ,when 80% of the workforce was men, and 20% women. Eliminate Affirmative Action. fred

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

HappyDaze — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:51:08 GMT

I read so much about pollution and how we should conserve everything. But I've never heard anyone comment on the pollution generated by exploding bombs and the devastation generated by wars.

Remember the "butterfly effect"? How much of the changes in climate can be traced back to the incredible number of bombs that have been exploded around our planet - the only planet we all call home?

Is there any connection between the bombings in Iraq and the devastating drought in Australia?

But also remember climate change has been going on for many thousands of years, so maybe climate change on our planet is ALSO the result of things happening elsewhere in the universe?

NOTHING lasts forever... everything eventually becomes old and changes into something else!

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

HappyDaze — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:40:36 GMT

I decided to back up most of my important business data to an external hard drive. I thought my data would be safe and I could then easily download it to a new computer. However the brand new external hard drive failed!!! I'm grateful that at least I have paper copies of my accounts. (Still waiting to see if I can find someone to salvage years of work.)

Remember floppy disks? Who uses these outdated things any more? Old floppys generally fail to read so the information is lost!

I'm sure that paper documents will last a lot longer than information on CDs DVDs and external drives, etc. The historians of the future will miss a lot of valuable information because it was stored electronically and the machines that could read the data it are no longer made. Can you imagine them looking for information and having to go through EVERY file on each disk! Eyesight can scan paper much faster!!

I once met an old quirky man who used one piece of paper, a pencil and a rubber. He had used the same piece of paper for many years! Now that's conservation of paper, but not so sure about how much rubber he used up!

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

Fred Potter — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:35:00 GMT

I'm a statistician and my clients and I sit and draw diagrams and equations which can be filed away. Whiteboards soon get full and can't be filed away. Drawing diagrams on screen is painfully slow

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

BrianSD — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:24:32 GMT

The more paper and wood we use the more trees are planted by the lumber industry. The use of paper and wood are good for the environment.

I don'rt understand why peoplee advocate a paperless office.

Computers, on the other hand have numerous advantages. It is faster to search a library of documents with a computer than sifting through files and books and tens of thousands of books can now be stored on a divice that fits in the the palm of ones hand.

Go ahead, use paper and don't feel guilty about it. You're doiong the world a favor.

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

chuckfeeders — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:34:02 GMT

LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Kudos to you for making the move! Also, look for LEED CI which rates Commercial Interiors, when moving into your space.

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

Naturenut — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:05:12 GMT

I worked for a bank and was happy when mortgage applications went "online". Little did I realize it just gave us the ability to print MORE paper, faster! I think you have lawyers to thank for more paper. Everyone has to get a copy of the fine print, legal notices, disclaimers, privacy acts.......................I wish we could just give people a book to "read" and sign one paper saying they read it :) With that said, I think the paper industry is being villified when these protests and marches and attention should be placed elsewhere, like on factories polluting the air and water, or wait, do paper factories do that too?

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

sandman4224 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:34:22 GMT

Hemp,hemp,hemp! WHEN (and I mean when) Ron Paul becomes president, I'm sure there will be a move made to legalize this vilified plant. It makes the best paper possible and will save our precious trees. The Constitution was written on this stuff for God's sake :)

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

Promise — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:27:28 GMT

I agree with the bohemian donut! Sometime my intuition tells me that going all electronic is not the greenest or healthiest solution. I'd rather rattle some papers than sit in front of my computer screen. Surely Dr. Mercola knows the detriments of sitting too much in front of an electronic device. ..or just sitting too much. Trees can be replanted. Paper can be recycled. We can use less of it, surely, but to go all electronic? It gives me the shudders!

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

pinkskittles — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:00:04 GMT

i learned that it takes 37 trees to publish one issue of some local toronto health-related magazine. health related used to be green, not anymore i guess! that's enough trees! we need our trees.

i'd say if you really want to go paperless, stop buying magazines, use both sides of the paper, use scrap paper for note paper, insist that the phone and internet companies stop sending you their foolish magazines geared toward teenagers and pay all your bills online and request that the company stop sending you paper statements. also if your ATM gives you the option, select "no" to getting a receipt.

these are the things i'm doing, and though i understand as a student it's not appropriate to give in reports with text printed on both sides or on scrap paper, i still do what i can to minimize my support of deforestation.

my girlfriend has been doing a good job in making the company she works for use recycled paper (which costs a bit more) for the company's printing needs.

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You Alive

bohemiandonut — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:20:36 GMT

Going "paperless" is not a good way to go green. In fact by doing so you are reducing the number of trees available to clean up our atmosphere. Use more paper and the industry plants more trees, simple as that. It is other industries, not the paper industry, that is causing deforestation (think agriculture).

re: How to Go Paperless: Bury the Paper Before it Buries You

dempoolguy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:57:31 GMT

I'm in a paperless office, however, the prevailing attitude is "I'll just run a copy of this" or hitting the PRINT button on everything we see as vaguely interesting, hence mounds of papers going through my desk, straight into the trash.

It's the waste that needs to be contained, the attitude of waste. If we had to pay for all the paper we consume, the mounds would go down.

Oh, wait, we do pay - but the cost is so nominal (what is it, a quarter of a penny per sheet or something?), that I think papers are piling up so much more than were 20 years ago.