SOLUTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE(GROUP ACTIVITY)

 Deforestation Mitigation Plan

 (Reduction in paper usage)

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

            Average worldwide annual paper consumption is 48 KG per person. In this North America alone accounts for over 1/3 of it. Asia has surpassed Western Europe in paper consumption and will soon surpass the United States. It is estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper. As for how many trees are cut down each year, the 2005 report concludes that primary forest area was reduced globally by 60,000 square kilometers per year, which means about 3 billion to 6 billion trees per year. In the U.S alone 30 Million trees are cut down annually for paper. 10,000 trees are cut down annually in China just to make holiday cards. Paper products use about 35% of the world's annual commercial wood harvest. Despite of causing the issue of deforestation it also accounts to water scarcity as Paper manufacturing is the largest industrial user of water per pound of finished products.

            Though recycling measures have been undertaken it takes about 54 KG of newspaper to save just one tree. And the public consider this as an inconspicuous issue and most of the time fail to submit paper for recycling . About 40 million tons of paper that could be recycled is thrown away each year in the U.S

AIM :

            To cut down paper consumption by implementation of an effective plan and thus reduce deforestation on a major scale. Deforestation is an issue of major concern as trees are being felled at an increasingly alarming rate to suffice the needs of the enormously growing population. If this state continues ecological balance would be completely disrupted which in turn would cause bigger issues, global warming topping the list. Deforestation due to paper consumption also puts the lives of many animals at stake. Hence there is a crucial need to slack down paper consumption

SOLUTION :

            Computers have become an inseparable part of our daily lives. Thus if an effective solution to this problem could be rendered in the form of computers it could serve as a big boon to the human society .All books should be replaced with e-books. In restaurants paper notepads can be effectively replaced by tablets. The concept of Virtual classrooms can be instigated in all universities. This would save a large number of paper from being used as notes get automatically updated into every student’s personal account. Examinations could be conducted as an online test. PDF files can take the place of written assignments. The concept of e-paper already exists but not popularly followed. The concept of e-tickets should be followed on large scale. Banners can be replaced by electronic bulletin boards.

Every person holds a passport , driver’s license, Insurance papers, vehicle’s RC book etc. All of this could be integrated into a single card with a unique ID for each person(unique id could have person’s fingerprint and retina details as duplication or ambiguity can not occur in that case ). If implemented successfully this idea would cut down a remarkable amount of paper consumption. 

Robotized techniques could be invented to implement afforestation measures. A database could be maintained for every reserve forest area to hold count of the trees cut down legally every year. ( It is not possible to hold track of the number cut down illegally ). When the count goes below a pre-assigned value a message could be automatically sent to the concerned reserve forest area. This activates the robot functioning with the help of sensors and initiates new sapling planting. 

REFERENCE : http://www.id2.ca/downloads/eco-design-paper-facts.pdf