One step forward in paper saving

Folks,

Last month was really successful in implementing the Paper saving techniques in my personal and work routine. Just wanted to inform you some ways which I practiced last month to easily save paper and help the earth become greener.

1. I used to take 5-6 tissue papers everyday in the canteen, most of them were unnecessary. I reduced it to only 2 per day and thus saving 4 tissues per day. means 100 tissues per month and 1200 tissues per year. I asked my group (4 others) also to follow it dedicatedly. Now you can sum it up and imagine the figure.

2. Since one month I am using only sticky notes on my desktop as a reminder and thus saving 5 small sheets per day. You can also download TK8 sticky notes for free.

3. I used to take atleast 70-80 A4 print-outs every month for checking purpose most of the time. And guess what. This month most of the time I have done checking the drawings or ppts on the screen itself. I hardly took 10 prints this month if I remember correctly. It was so easy.

4. I cleared most of the paper waste around me (Old unnecessary papers in files and drawers etc.) and sent them immediately to recycling chain instead of keeping it with me. Now my place looks cleaner and paper free.

See how easy it is to save paper without compromising your work and life. All you have to do is to stay focused.

Stay Green......

How youth can contribute?

How can the youth contribute for Gujarat and participate in the state development?(Question asked by Darpan Shah, Mahesh, Gomes, Krutagna and Arun to Narendra Modi)

Narendra Modi's Answer:
I have appealed the youth of Gujarat to come forward and do their bit towards serving the society. I have suggested four fields where youth can make significant contribution. When the youth climbs the four mountains of services for education, health, sanitation and environment - Gujarat will said to have truly touched its peak.
1: Education: Can youth devote at least 100 hours in a year for the service to the Gujarat? In a week, some can devote two hours, five hours, 10 hours in a month but it should reach to 100 hours in a year. 100 hours on the occasion of this Golden Jubliee year. Youth should have a firm determination to spend 100 hours religiously for a noble work. You can teach at any place, in any school, any chawl, society, slum area, irrespective of the place, what matters is 100 hours of teaching. If you are undertaking this mission of teaching, you can teach two students, four students, and maid in your house, an old person, you should work hard to teach anybody who is illiterate.

2: Cleanliness and Sanitation work: Youth can take a pledge for encouraging people for maintaining cleanliness. Design programmes for it, and encourage more people to participate in the programme. Youth should be ready to go to the schools, discuss the issue of cleanliness and educate students about keeping the surroundings clean. Importance of this work lies in how a small act can change over the lives of the smallest men in the state.

3: Serve the patients. Take interest in hospital and improving its general administration. Keeping a check on medicines and other supplies, to check whether facilities provided to the patients are availed by them or not. Find ways to make it easier for patients to avail these facilities. Keep a check on drinking water, sanitation facilities, and their habits of cleanliness. Find ways to prevent contagious disease from spreading. Such small initiatives bear a huge potential to change lives of people and help society to become healthier.

4: Global Warming: It is an acute problem posed to the world. Youth can take forward the preaching of respect Gandhi bapu and inculcate it in lives of the people. To live with least possible objects and pursue for an environment friendly movement- the measures to save water, energy and time.

Saving is a good habit, lets start with PAPER.

Hello, this is a short composition about the ‘PAPER’. Made of wood simply formed out of a tree cut in some corner of the world. What is the first thought come to your mind when you hold a piece of paper in your hand? A very fresh, bright white piece of paper and nothing more. Next thing you get tempt either to write on it or to sketch on it for no reason sometimes and then throw it in a bin. Most of the people know that paper is made out of trees and we should save trees to protect the environment. But have you ever thought of the extent the woods are cut to form a virgin paper? And what quantity of paper an average person consumes per year or so? Some may think of only printing papers when one say ‘Paper’, but there are number of applications of the paper which can be taken into focus and thousands and millions of trees can be unshackled. You would be surprised (like I got) to know some far-fetched but true facts about paper.

Some statistics on paper consumption:
- The average per capita paper use worldwide is 110 pounds (50 kg).
- It is estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper. [Source: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Discussion Paper (IIED, London, September 1996)]
- Recycling 1 short ton (0.91 t) of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7 thousand US gallons (26 m3) of water, 3 cubic yards (2.3 m3) of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil (84 US gal or 320 l), and 4,100 kilowatt-hours (15 GJ) of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for six months.
- Although paper is traditionally identified with reading and writing, communications has now been replaced by packaging as the single largest category of paper use at 41% of all paper used.
- 115 billion sheets of paper are used annually for personal computers. The average web user prints 28 pages daily. (Unbelievable - but true)
- Most corrugated fiberboard boxes have over 25% recycled fibers. Some are 100% recycled fiber.

Little acts of prudence, which can make a big difference in paper saving are as follows. (Applies to all level of people)
1. Less use / Don’t use Post It paper tags. Use misprint or waste papers instead.
2. Use old diaries or notebooks, which are already formed into paper out of wood, reducing purchase of fresh paper and thus less wood chopping. Buy only recycled notebooks.
3. Make maximum usage of e-tools / Mobile etc. for information transfer and communication. Avoid paper usage as far as possible. This is quite possible and have maximum impact on paper saving. An estimated 940 million people worldwide have access to the Internet, which is almost a sixth of the world’s population.
4. Apply 3R Concept – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. All you have to do is to just think for a while about 3R before using any kind of paper. I mean any kind.
5. Replace paper napkins with cloth napkins, and paper plates with regular dishes.
6. Sign up for e-statement wherever possible and avoid printed bills. Pay online wherever possible.
7. Sign up for online publications of your magazines instead of printed copy.
8. Prevent undue usage of the packaging and reuse packing material wherever possible.
9. Think before you print. Try printing double-sided and also try to print multiple pages on one to save even more paper.
10. Use scanner in office as far as possible, instead of taking print-outs.
11. Do not allow unneccessary papers to stack near you, clear them soon and send it to the proper recycling channel.

World No Tobacco Day 31st May (Every Year)

World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on May 31. It is meant to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption across the globe. The day is further intended to draw global attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to 5.4 million deaths worldwide annually. The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) in 1987. In the past twenty years, the day has been met with both enthusiasm and resistance across the globe from governments, public health organizations, smokers, growers, and the tobacco industry.

WHO has kicked off the 'World No Tobacco Day' today on 31st May targetting heavily on the Women Smokers as long as the theme for this year was 'Gender and Tobacco'. Some surprising and interesting fact have come out when they declared that 'It is estimated that more than 8% of girls between 13 and 15, or around 47 crore girls, are using tobacco products in the Asia-Pacific region'. Indian doctors said there had been a considerable increase in women smoking, especially among young college girls, attributing the rise to stress, peer pressure and high disposable incomes. WHO also added that heavily invested alluring marketing campaigns are performed by Tobacco Manufacturers to attract the young women targeting their early earning powers and so called independence in the Asia's largest growing economies.

Looking at the facts and the side (worst) effects of tobacco, I would like to strongly recommend to the youth not only the women (but especially the women) to please slowly reduce and then quite smoking soon. My suggestion to them is do not smoke while you are stressed but only when you are happy, because there are less chances of being happy then stressed. And thus less smoking.