June 2004 - San Mateo County
Multi-Family Recycling and Resource Conservation Nexus
A Monthly Electronic Newsletter from RethinkWaste.org/SBWMA
Measuring the Benefits
Recycling and buying recycled products have lots of benefits: cleaner air, reduced energy and water use, and conserving resources. However, do you know how beneficial your recycling and resource conservation habits are?
Use the Paper Calculator to help you determine your recycling benefit to the environment. Calculate your Ecological Footprint. The results may surprise you!
Paper Calculator
The "Paper Calculator" calculates the U.S. average energy and wood consumption and environmental releases summed across the full "life cycle" of each of five major grades of paper and paperboard. Commissioned by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, the calculator is a joint project of Environmental Defense, the U.S. Postal Service, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Give the calculator a spin at www.ofee.gov/recycled/cal-index.htm.
- For the virgin content of a given paper, the Paper Calculator estimates the environmental and energy impacts associated with its production from wood and its subsequent disposal in landfills and incinerators.
- For the portion of a given paper produced with a specified percentage of post-consumer recycled content, the Paper Calculator estimates the impacts of its production from recovered paper and its subsequent recovery and processing for recycling.
Once you have considered your environmental costs, youíll see the best choice is to buy recycled-content paper. To learn more about buying recycled paper products, see the Conservatree Web site at www.conservatree.com, which can help you find the papers you need in the Environmentally Sound Paper Listings section.
Calculate Your Ecological Footprint
Ever wonder what your ecological footprint is? An ecological footprint provides a quantitative assessment of the biologically productive area (the amount of nature) required to produce the resources (food, energy, and materials) and to absorb the waste put out by a resident over the course of a year.
Use this very basic questionnaire to calculate a quick and relatively accurate Ecological Footprint for an individual living in the US. The 13 questions are divided into 3 sections (food, transportation, and housing). Your honest and accurate answers are used in this application to calculate your Ecological Footprint. The default answers represent North American averages. You may be surprised by the result.
Determine your Ecological Footprint using the online questionnaire at www.lead.org/leadnet/footprint/intro.htm.
Factoid
Making paper from waste paper produces 73% less air pollutants and uses 61% less process water than when paper is made from virgin fiber.
Source: US Environmental Protection Agency
To be added or removed from this list, contact the RethinkWaste Recycling Coordinator at (650) 802-3500.
