It is estimated that the world produces over 500 million tons of paper with writing and printing papers which are mostly found in offices accounting for the largest percentage of the total paper consumption. In 2011 alone, the world saw approximately 400 million tons of paper being produced and consumed (Statista.com). Big contributors of paper consumption are the United States, China and Japan. The three countries alone account for almost half of the world’s paper production and consumption. The United States is the leading country in as far as paper export is concerned while Germany is the world’s leading country in paper import. These statistics are alarming considering the improvement and advancement in technology that is in place to help offices to go paperless.
The United States is the world largest producer of paper and paper products. In the United States alone, over the previous 20 years the usage of paper products has witnessed an increase by a margin of over 126%. America up to date still consumes more paper per capita than any other country in the world. These statistics, therefore, imply that a single individual in America consumes more than 700 pounds of paper yearly (Statista.com). What is even alarming in the United States is that paper alone in the United States is among one of the leading solid waste in landfills. This was the case as one person in America in the last decade ended up consuming as much paper as 6 individuals drawn from Asia and Africa (Statista.com). It is approximated that the United States uses over 68 million forest trees every year so as to generate paper and other varied paper merchandises. Paper production alone in the United States is the third most energy-intensive of all production and manufacturing industries with the industry consuming over 12% of all energy (Facts). The paper industry is also ranked the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in as far as the manufacturing industry is concerned (STORY). The southern part of the U.S, though the region comprises 31% of the country’s timber inventory, is tasked with the collection of over 54% of the country’s overall timber volumes.
Today, in most offices in the United States, office workers continue to use over 10,000 sheets of copy paper every year with which 50% of the paper that are printed in the offices ends up being trashed on daily basis. Companies are estimated to be spending over $120 billion a year on printed papers most of which end up being outdated in three months’ time (Facts). This is a very alarming trend as more than 70% of business located in the USA would flop just within less than four weeks were they to suffer a calamitous damage of paper-based archives through flood or fire (Statista.com).
Paper consumption and the environment
While recycling is a very crucial aspect of protecting the environment as it helps keep paper and paper products off the landfills, it does also not necessarily save the environment. This is the case as paper and paper products cannot be recycled indefinitely. At one point it will still end up as waste and pollutant on the environment (Culleri). In most cases, recycling also requires wood pulp to be added to the recycled materials. Pulp together with paper is so far the third leading manufacturing pollutant in the United States as it discharges more than 100 million kilograms of poisonous effluence every year (Costain). Today, it is estimated that over 18 million acres of forest is lost almost every year. This is very alarming as this can be equated to the United States losing over 20 football fields every minute. If this trend is allowed to continue in the United States, then the United States will not last more than 100 years before all the forests are completely destroyed and depleted.
The production of paper also contributes to water pollution. This is the case as paper wastewater has a tendency of discharging contents that contain solid wastes, nutrients as well as dissolved organic matter. Traces of alcohol as well as chelating agents together with inorganic materials are also contained in wastewater that comes as a result of paper production. When these toxic materials find their way into fresh water bodies, then they can easily cause eutrophication as well as changing the ecological characteristics of the water habitat which can also in some cases lead to the death of organisms residing in those water habitats.
But having looked at the above alarming statistics and trends, the question is how the police can ensure they reduce their over-reliance on paper. The police department in the United States, for a long time, have been on the fore front of using paper and paper products. This is because almost everything they do has to be recorded carefully and well to be preserved so as to be used later if there is a need to do that. However, there ought to be a way for the police department to reduce the consumption of paper and paper products; there are steps that they can take that will effectively see the reduction of the usage of paper and all derivative products. One automatic way to do this is to take advantage of the power of technology and shift to electronic forms. In fact, using of electronic forms will not only make their job easier but will also go a long way in increasing their efficiency.
The switch to electronic records has a number of benefits as witnessed by other offices and businesses that resorted to electronic form and have found out. One of the upsides of the switch is that it takes less time to both find and process information. This, however, does not necessarily mean that electronic solutions should completely eliminate the usage of paper. The two will be used together so as to complement each other, but in the process the police department will see that they will start to reduce their over-reliance on paper and paper products. The police department should ensure that they try in as much as possible to send information electronically where they should take advantage of E-mail instead of mail letters. They should also create an electronic file system that will ensure quick and easy retrieval of information.
The police department should also incorporate the duplex copying approach where all documents produce should be printed on both sides. The immediate advantage of this approach is that not only will it ensure that the police use less paperwork but also saves a lot of space in as far as storage is concerned. The police department should also come with an online platform where many of the billing can be done in a more effective way. Here, everything concerned with billing such as paying of fines should be conducted online. This strategy will indeed go a long way in saving the police department operational and processing costs and increase their efficiency at the same time.
All police departments that are located in the United States should also ensure that they implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980. All procedural requirements should be followed by the police in collection of any information from the public. This will ensure that they do not only end up collecting information that might in the end be useless but save a lot of money as well as the usage of paper.
In researching for this paper, Lieutenant Hannigan from Chicago was interviewed. The Lieutenant shade more light as to how the police departments are trying to address the issue of reducing over-reliance on paperwork. He pointed out that in Chicago alone, police could be using over 600 different paper forms. All of the police paperworks are never destroyed but are kept temporarily in the various departments and agencies for some time after which they are shipped to a permanent storage facility. This is always the case as some information might be of use in more than ten years to come. Even though the Lieutenant was not sure how much the police department spend on a yearly basis, he was quick to point out that it takes a substantial amount of the police agency’s budget. I was impressed when I asked him if there are ways by which they were trying to eliminate the use of paper forms and he was quick to mention that there is an ongoing process in efforts that try to ensure that they shift to the use of electronic forms. The lieutenant further indicated that the changeover process is a slow one, but they have the belief that they will reach that level in the near future.
Law enforcement agencies that are using paperwork see over 50% of their total budget being spend on paper and all paper related activities and inventoty. This is the case as the usage of paper makes the associated cost of paper be as high as 31 times the purchasing cost of that paper which ranges from printing to recycling (Costain). But law enforcement agencies that have gone paperless have witnessed that the process saved them a lot of money that they could not have imagined. Through the process of reducing reliance on paper, the agencies have reduced their paper costs by up to 25% (McCorry). Agencies that have shifted to online billing have enjoyed the approach as the paper costs were reduced by up to 90%.
It should be understood that the cost of a paper is only about 11% of its entire lifecycle cost. The main cost usually comes in the delivery, copying, storage, handling and retrieval of the paper’s information. Copying ad printing cost is estimated to be about 33% with the distribution cost, on the other hand, being around 60% (McCorry). Even though shifting to electronic file system costs some money in the starting stages, the long term benefits are very promising, as once the system is in place then 90% of the cost is taken care of.
As discussed above, and with the issue of paper and paper products usage in America almost creating an environmental catastrophe, there is a high need for government agencies to implement measures that will see their departments reducing their over-reliance on paperwork. The police department has no option but to be in the forefront in implementing those measures. With technology now being extremely common and readily available, the police department should ensure that it switches to electronic file system. While doing this over any scheduled period of time, they should ensure that they implement other measures such as the duplex-copying approach that will go a long way in saving costs on paper as well as paperwork. Agencies that have gone paper less are now enjoying the fruits of electronic file systems as it helps them cut up to 90% on the total amount of paper that they used before switching to electronic means. As such, there is a high need for the police department to ensure that they shift to electronic file system and, consequently, minimize the usage of paper and related products.
Works Cited
Costain, Meredith. The Life Cycle Of Paper. New York: PowerKids Press, 2013. Print.
Culleri, Jeremy C. Recycling. New York: Nova Publishers, Inc., 2013. Print.
Statista.com. "Key Figures Of The U.S. Forest, Paper And Packaging Industry, 2013 | Statistic". Statista. N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
"Key Figures Of The U.S. Forest, Paper And Packaging Industry, 2013 | Statistic". Statista. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
McCorry, K. J. "The Cost of Managing Paper: A Great Incentive to Go Paperless!." (2009).
Stoty, Louise. "The Hidden Life Of Paper And Its Impact On The Environment". The New York Times 2006: n. pag. Print.
"World Paper Free Day: 4 Steps To End Your Reliance On Paper | Docfinity - Optical Image Technology". Docfinity.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
