A government campaign to reduce the amount of office waste has taken flight on the wings of a 35-foot paper aeroplane over the City of London.
The plane launched by Envirowise, a government-funded organisation dedicated to reforming Britons' tendencies for paper waste, was made of 1584 sheets of A4 paper, the average amount of paper an office worker gets through in just one month.
Envirowise claims that paper usage is rising by nearly 20% each year, with the average office worker using up to 50 sheets of paper everyday, despite the proliferation of electronic technologies.
The figure does not even include waste from newspapers and magazines, the group said.
"Wasting paper is not only a drain on our environment but is also a burden on most companies' bottom line," said Envirowise programme director Dr. Martin Gibson.
"They are wasting money with every piece of paper they use needlessly. We have worked with a business of just 40 staff who saved £40,000 a year purely through paper minimising initiatives."
The organisation advised small offices that with better practice, their employees can use as little as 15 sheets per day, thus reducing both their own costs and damage to the environment.
Simple reforms can help cut back some of the 5 million tonnes of printing and writing paper the group estimates firms throw away each year.
Gibson said that firms can reset their printers to print on both sides of a sheet of paper, used recycled paper, thinner paper, re-use scrap paper and issue more documents electronically to make immediate reductions on their waste.
And Gibson added that the 35-foot plane will be recycled upon landing.
