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The Great Paper Abate

I love the mountains. One of my favorite questions to ponder is: dream cabin nestled in the woods, or lovely beach house by the sea? I waver on this one, but if pressed, I think I’d choose a cozy cabin in the woods.

I love the woods, but I realized this month that I’ve spent most of my life consuming paper and trees like a maniac.

This month of TCLP was the Great Paper Abate: I chose to study the flow of paper in and out of my life, with a goal to understand how I might be abusing it and how I could do my best to stem the tide of waste.

Why does thinking about paper waste matter? There are lots of stats out there, but this one resonated with me:

All of that, just for coffee cups?

If I’m being honest, understanding the implications of my paper usage and waste also felt like a baby step towards a more ominous topic that looms in my future…plastic.

So for now, I started with paper.

I started my experiment the same way I did for toxic beauty products, and dragged everything that was remotely “paper” (or made of paper) into a huge, unavoidable pile in the middle of my living room:

Honestly, I’m not sure I’d recommend doing this. It was a huge mess. But I needed to inventory. I wanted to understand exactly how I collect, consume, and get rid of the paper that comes in and out of my life. I realized I was consuming a ton of paper, totally untracked and not thought about.

Bea has a system of approaching waste that goes: “Refuse > Reduce > Reuse > Recycle > Rot” (i.e, if possible, try to refuse something unnecessary, like a printed receipt or paper grocery bag. If all else fails, follow the system until you have no option but to compost.)

I adapted her system to categorize my paper use and from there, created some action plans for reducing my paper waste.

Refuse:

Reduce:

Identify a sustainable source for:

— -

With this plan drafted up, (and my mom’s help), I sorted everything back into its place.

Then, I went into two weeks of life feeling hyper-sensitive to the abundance of paper that seems to be everywhere, now: unnecessary receipts, too many napkins, greasy pizza boxes, layers of packaging we don’t ask for.

It’s overwhelming, but I singled out a few ways I feel could make a dent in the long run:

I’ve never given my junk mail a second thought. In fact, it usually doesn’t even make it into my home: I empty it straight from my mailbox into the community trash bin that sits by our condo mailboxes. And yes, it’s a trash bin, not a clearly marked recycle bin. Cringe.

I decided to go to war on junk mail, and stop with the autopilot support of deforestation. I gathered up all my mail, curled up in bed, and took it envelope by envelope.

There are some sites that help you unsubscribe in bulk, but I’d recommend starting by tackling what’s physically *in* your mailbox already. It’s really gratifying. Here was my experience:

Community Impact Newsletter (local Austin newspaper): hard. No apparent opt-out option; e-mailed them directly. Still waiting to hear back.

Spectrum bill: Easy. Went online, changed billing option to paperless.

Mortgage bill: Easy. Went online, changed billing option to paperless.

All State Insurance Policy ad (two this round, those buggers) — easy — called the “unsubscribe” number on the bottom of the mailing, they removed me from the list. Calling felt like a pain but the guy was so nice I couldn’t be annoyed.

Unavoidable papers to accept and e-file:

…Ok, this left me with a huge pile of pre-screened credit card and loan offers, as well as some random postcard ads with no option to unsubscribe.

Pre-screened credit card and loan offers can be opted out in bulk, here:

For all the rest… look for “Return Service Requested” and shoot that sucker back to where it came from.

If the junk mail is labeled “Return Service Requested” or if it’s First-Class Mail, that means that postage to return it is pre-paid and you can stick it back in your box and send it right back to the spammer to deal with. Write “Refused — Return to Sender” and “Take me off your mailing list” on the envelope or postcard, and return it, unopened. Their problem now. (Thanks, Bea!)

2. I decided Toilet Paper is non-negotiable, but there are better options than Charmin.

As with any product in America, we have choice overload when it comes to TP. In stocking my own TP for about 12 years now, I’ve mindlessly migrated to either the cheapest option (when I feel budget-y) or the plushest (when I feel fancy). Absolutely no thought to how this purchase, once set on autopilot, could impact the world for the better.

I’m ordering this on auto-pilot and choosing not to worry about it until I hear a better / more sustainable choice is on the market. Why is it awesome? It’s 100% recycled (made without trees), unbleached/dyed, and they donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets for people who need them. That’s a huge portion of their profits! Sold.

3. I discovered that ordering paper-free take out food makes for an amazing and awkward challenge, but it’s worth it.

I work a lot and live alone, so I eat a lot of take out. I realized in my great paper audit that a lot of my monthly paper consumption is, sadly, to-go coffee cups and other paper take out packaging. I’ll be honest, there’s something about the crinkly paper that’s half the fun of takeout. I’ll work on getting over that.

Fun challenge: try to order takeout in a way that doesn’t generate trash for a few weeks.

It’s awkward but kind of fun, and totally possible if you get in a groove, I think. I’m new at this but think I’ll end up finding a few places that make it easy, and just rely on them for my takeout food.

P-Terry’s:

I brought in a small plastic container to order a single veggie burger at P-Terry’s. I went late at night, so there wasn’t a long line (didn’t want to make a big fuss for my first try).

I placed my order with the cashier and handed him my container, asking if they’d mind packing my burger in the container instead of the normal paper packaging. He looked confused, but accepted the container and passed it to the person preparing the burger.

She was also confused and I felt really awkward for a few seconds — so I said: “Oh, I’m doing this experiment to see how I can cut down on garbage day-to-day.” I found this totally smoothed things over — she was really friendly in her response and said something like, “Oh, cool. No problem.” She packed my burger with no issues and I walked out sans napkins.

Learning: Explaining the awkwardness away with the experiment line works really well. I figure this will be my lifelong experiment, so might use it for a while…even if I’m well past the experimental phase. Maybe that’s a cop out, but I feel like there’s a good vibe to it that might even give people reason to consider experimenting with no garbage themselves.

My mom and I pulled off a mostly package-less takeout night with Indian food, too (we had to go in to place our order, to sort out the container situation. I just asked if they’d mind packing the food in my containers, and they took them with no hesitation as we paid. Definitely adds some time to the experience, though).

But there were plenty of failures. I’d hesitate too long before asking, and my food would get packaged. I’d bring the wrong size container and have to just leave it in the car. I’d find myself crunched for time and needing to opt for the pre-boxed meal to-go. It’s all a learning experience, but I think the key for me is getting into a routine at a handful of places I love (this gives them the chance to get comfortable with my odd routine, too).

4. I took a few minutes to research what paper is actually recyclable.

The answer? Who knows. It’s a totally convoluted and confusing mess. Some websites say one thing, some say another. It seems the best source of truth is your local government’s site, but I read enough to get a headache and realize that not as much is recyclable, truly, as I thought. Some of the more questionable/controversial items are:

Reading into what’s recyclable vs. what’s not makes me feel helpless and overwhelmed. But I’m driving that energy into eliminating paper from my life in the first place, rather than relying on a false sense of relief because “it’s ok, I recycle.”

A few other experiments I’m trying:

All in all, it’s been an eye opening experiment: unnecessary paper is everywhere, whether we ask for it or not. Like a lot of things in motion on the planet right now, we’ll have to curb this eventually, and will have probably wished we had acted way sooner. So it’s important to think about, and I feel like I’ve identified some ways to curb the tide a little… at least in my own life. I’ll keep learning and experimenting and share more as I go.

Thanks to Bea Johnson’s book, the Great Paper Abate felt like my baby step into the zero waste movement, which is massive and totally overwhelming — but so inspiring.

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