Ten Things You Can Do to Use Less Wood

by Meg Krehbiel

The average American consumes the equivalent of one mature tree every year. How can you reduce your use of wood even if you aren't building a house or printing a book? Here are ten suggestions:

1. Encourage alternative-paper producers by buying tree-free or 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper whenever possible.

2. Spurn junk mail. Get your name off unsolicited mailing lists by contacting the Direct Marketing Association Mail Preference Service at 11 W. 42nd St., P.O. Box 3861, New York, NY 10163-3861; (212) 768-7277.

3. Go online. It may not be "paperless" as once promised, but e-mail and computer networking can eliminate a blizzard of paper memos. You can also help do away with the phone book by searching out telephone numbers on the Web.

4. "Paper or plastic?" The answer is cloth. When you shop, bring a reusable canvas bag, and eschew overpackaged products.

5. Dispense with disposables. Each year 1.26 million metric tons of wood pulp go into disposable diapers; so far more than 18 billion have ended up in dumps (where they can take up to 500 years to decompose). A plus: you can put your kid through a year of college with the money you'll save.

6. Say good-bye to tissues and paper towels; get reacquainted with handkerchiefs and rags (those old diapers from No. 5 will do just fine).

7. If you must use a wood stove, make sure that it's efficient and that your home is insulated to the max. Don't use your fireplace to heat a room; save it for romantic moments.

8. Be a miser. If you need firewood, ask builders at construction sites for scraps, or your neighbor for the remains of that fallen tree. Use paper with writing on only one side for notes, drafts, and shopping lists.

9. Recycle! The more gradations you can convince your local recycler to accept, the better: white paper, mixed, newsprint, and cardboard.

10. Don't throw this magazine away--pass it on to a friend.

What Sierra is Doing

Sierra was one of the first national magazines to be printed on recycled paper. Our paper is 50 to 60 percent recycled overall, 15 percent of which is post-consumer waste. We also take pains to ensure that the magazine is fully recyclable, avoiding scent strips, cover coatings, plastic inserts, etc.

Where to Find Wood Substitutes

The innovators:

George Deffet, HL Stud Corp., 1-800-HLSTUDS

Earthwright Institute, 1058 Second Ave., Napa, CA 94558, (707) 224-1127

Out on Bale, 1037 East Linden St., Tucson, AZ 85719, (602) 624-1673

Pierce International, 13275 East Fremont Pl., Suite 101A, Englewood, CO 80112, (303) 792-0719

Arbokem, Inc., P.O. Box 95014, Vancouver, BC V6P 6V4, (604) 322-1317

Vision Paper, P.O. Box 20399, Albuquerque, NM 87154, (505) 294-0293

Living Tree Paper Company, 1430 Willamette St., Suite 367, Eugene, OR 97401, (800) 309-2974

Jeffery Dean Ruiz Design, 651 Addison St., Berkeley, CA 94710, (510) 841-8750.

(C) 2000 Sierra Club. Reproduction of this article is not permitted without permission. Contact sierra.magazine@sierraclub.org for more information.