Electronic information technology was a key driver of business growth and change during the 90s. But paper and printing are still omnipresent, their use is increasing and they continue to play a central role in every aspect of business. Unfortunately, as paper use grows, paper waste continues to rise as well. A myopic perspective on the value of managing paper waste and misconceptions about what constitutes recycling complicate matters further. A typical office worker uses 12,000 sheets of printing and copy paper per year and produces two pounds of paper waste per day. Research by the environmental consulting firm Envirowise in the UK has found that rubbish can cost businesses up to 4.5 percent of their annual turnover, so it really is in a company’s interests to rethink its rubbish.

Many companies fail to see waste paper as anything but trash, and too few manage the purchasing and use of paper or the recycling of paper waste effectively. While the overall recycling percentage of waste paper recycled has doubled in the past ten years, there is plenty of room for improvement. In the US , according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, over 40 percent of municipal solid waste is paper and businesses account for 67 percent of all the paper waste in landfills. There is also a growing consensus among environmental groups that corporations should set aggressive targets for paper waste recovery, recycling and environmentally responsible procurement of paper, much in the way that corporations have set greenhouse gas reduction targets exceeding those mandated under the Kyoto Protocol.

According to Professor Stuart Hart, Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the Kenan Flagler School of Business in North Carolina, "Few executives realise that environmental opportunities might actually become a major source of revenue growth. Greening has been framed in terms of risk reduction, reengineering or cost cutting. Rarely is greening linked to strategy or technology development and, as a result, most companies fail to recognise opportunities of potentially staggering proportions."

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