Conserving our natural resources starts at the office

Bambang Parlupi, Contributor, Jakarta

Take a moment to think about how much paper you waste every day, for example, at the office.

Paper has become an integrated part of our lives, both at home and in the office.

A secretary, Dahlia Herisara Lubis, for instance, uses lots of paper at her workplace.

"In one day, our office goes through one hundred to three hundred sheets of paper for correspondence and making proposals or presentations," said the employee of a telecommunications device supplier, PT Graha Patta.

It is common to use new sheets of paper for writing letters, important files and to make proposals, she added, while used paper is for making drafts of letters, progress reports or printing out e-mails.

"For internal purposes, the empty space on either side of the page of used paper is reused," she added.

The same was echoed by Syarif Hidayat, a stock assistant at Uniprep, an educational institute.

"In a month's time, we're using about 75,000 sheets of bleached paper," Hidayat said. Paper is used to copy documents for teaching material or administration files.

Empty areas of used paper are then reused. "We make small note pads from used paper which are useful for scribbling down quick notes or messages," Hidayat said.

However, not all paper can be reused and it is thrown away, accumulating in the trash.

"Discarded paper, cardboard, used brochures and old newspapers are usually collected and then sold by office boys," Hidayat said.

Ridwan, who runs a business collecting used paper from offices located close to his office in Jl. HR Rasuna Said in South Jakarta, said he could sell 1.5 tons of used paper a week.

Used paper, he said, usually comes in the form of used faxes, computer printouts, old newspapers and magazines. He buys paper used for faxes and computer printouts for Rp 250 per kilogram, while used bleached paper goes for Rp 1,000 per kg.

"We don't resell paper on a retail basis because office files contain important records," Ridwan said, adding that he sold the used paper directly to, among other places, paper plants for recycling.

Burning paper was not the right option in dealing with waste, said Allie Badruddin of the waste monitoring committee, a non- governmental organization working on waste problems.

"Burning paper causes air pollution, a nonproductive thing to do," Alie said.

Everyone, he said, could take part in helping save the environment by using paper wisely. For instance, everyone could follow Dahlia and Hidayat's example of making use of used paper.

Moreover, used books and magazines can be donated to the needy, while old paper can be collected before selling it to scavengers or paper plants for recycling.

"It's better not to mix paper waste with other kinds of garbage in the trash," said Allie, the committee's coordinator, adding that dirty paper costs less than clean paper.

Paper and cardboard is mostly made out of thick wood or pine trees. Some of the trees that are made into paper are Pinus merkusii, Eucalyptus deglupta, Albizia felulina and Acasia mangium.

Based on research conducted by Lisman Sumardjani of the Mangrove Foundation in 1995, most paper in Indonesia is made out of short-fiber trees. Paper made out of long-fiber trees, however, has a higher resistance to tearing.

The government has introduced an industrial timber estates (HTI) program for planting long-fiber trees, a fast-growing species of tree for the pulp and paper industry.

Water is also vital in pulp and paper industrial processing. Sulfate-bleached pulp needs 430 m3 of water per ton and 600 m3 for dissolving pulp. For instance, making newsprint needs 100 m3 of water while cardboard needs 400 m3 and cigarette paper needs 1,000 m3 per ton of production.

These industries, however, produce waste and pollutants as a result of the bleaching process because of the sulfides and nitrites. Unless properly handled, this toxic waste harms society, both economically and ecologically.

"The long and difficult process of producing paper from limited raw materials should make people more careful when using paper. They should cut down on using paper," Allie said.

Moreover, manufacturing paper from recycled material cannot meet the market's demand, while the practice of making paper out of natural resources continues.

According to The Recycler's Hand Book, recycling printed and writing paper would save about 33 percent in energy, and at the same time, help preserve our natural resources. When a ton of paper is recycled, 7,000 gallons of water is saved. There is no harm in reusing used paper. By doing this, each one of us will save one tree a year.