Think you're doing Mother Earth a favor by marketing via email and reading your news online as opposed to sending a postcard through the mail or grabbing a copy of the daily news? It may be time to reevaluate your assumptions...

Paperless comes at a cost. Did you know?

• Over 200 million items of e-waste are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• 70% of toxic waste in the U.S. landfills comes from e-waste.
• Burning a CD produces 4 times as much CO₂ as printing a single annual report.
• Spam emails sent annually, have the footprint of driving a car around the globe 1.6 million times.

So what's a person to do? Think.
In the end, the best solution isn't to eliminate paper, but to use it well, and more wisely.

Surprise, surprise.
Swedish researches found recently that in Europe, reading the news for 30 minutes online produces more CO₂ per year, per reader, than reading a printed newspaper. The greatest factors contributing to CO₂: in printed news, the production of the paper itself; in online media, the energy used to power the computer while reading or, in the case of an e-tablest, to produce the device itself. Hmm.

[Information courtesy of NewPage Corporation, 8540 Gander Creek Drive, Miamisburg, OH 45342. For more tidbits on sustainability in the printing industry visit: www.NewPageCorp.com]