Companies shred their documents to enhance security and keep confidential information out of prying eyes. While it’s a solid reason for this action, it’s also vital to know that shredding paper can help the environment significantly.
This brief guide will help you know the importance of shredding paper and why there are companies and organizations dedicated to reusing them.
Reduce Forest Destruction
Most paper products are still sourced from torn-down forests to support big market demand, creating significant environmental damage, especially when cutting down virgin forests. This process is a longstanding threat to human and animal populations because trees provide oxygen, improve air quality, and support ecosystems.
By reusing paper, there’s no need to chop down as many forests to create various paper products. Fortunately, shredding companies in countries like Canada dedicate their efforts to recycling tons of paper they shred. There are even mobile shredders in London, Toronto, and many Canadian cities that go around to retrieve shredded documents for repurposing. These efforts may not repair the damages done so far, but they can help prevent the world from experiencing more.
Additionally, there are various ways to recycle shredded paper at home to keep it away from the trash.
Lessen Landfills
It’s known that paper can be recycled five to seven times, even shredded paper. Doing this will help reduce the amount of trash dumped in landfills. If we don’t fill landfills quickly, we reduce the need for additional dumping grounds and the dangers of making more.
Organic landfills release methane gas and other compounds, like hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, from decomposing trash that can significantly harm the environment.
Work as Compost
One of the best ways to recycle shredded papers is to turn them into compost and make them an excellent organic mixture to fertilize the soil and help plants grow healthier. It’s a perfect way to keep them off the landfills and help the environment further.
Conserve More Energy
Shredding and recycling paper reduces the energy, effort, and materials needed to produce them. These include labour, fuel, chemicals, transportation, and machine use, which are costly. Therefore, reusing paper may help the environment and the economy simultaneously.
Help Save Water
Did you know manufacturers utilize ten litres of water to generate a single sheet of A4? Just a single sheet, making pulp and paper industries among the largest industrial water consumers.
By continuously reusing paper, we may contribute to reducing the water consumption of these manufacturers.
Protect the Environment, One Paper at a Time
Our environment is experiencing irreversible damage from harmful procedures, like producing paper products. The world could be beyond repair at this point. The only thing we can do is to prevent further damage before experts come up with more ways to undo the issues done to our environment.
Recycling is at the forefront of preventing more damage from happening. Trash, like shredded paper, may be insignificant to some, but repurposing garbage can help the environment in many ways. If you have a document shredder at home, we hope this article will make you think twice about throwing them away.
