For the third year, IndyBar's Go Green committee is hosting the Green Legal Initiative to encourage law firms to commit to greener practices. We will be publishing tips and tricks throughout the next couple months that can help accomplish this goal. Our first tip was about paper use when making copies, but in this edition, we'll focus on paper use during a different part of your workday: the lunch hour.
According to an EPA study in 2008, tissues and paper towels contributed
3,460,000 tons to U.S. landfills in one year. (Find out more
here.) The EPA also states that
one-third of the waste that American households generate is composed of napkins and other paper products. Only
half of this paper waste is recycled. (More information can be found
here.)
So how do you change that? It all starts with lunchtime.
- Try to keep it to one napkin (the average employee uses around 6 each day) and, if possible, make it a cloth napkin that can be reused.
- Go paperless at the sink. Replace paper towel use with a cloth hand towel or, if you must use paper towels, stick to using just one each time.
- Encourage other employees to do the same. If every person used half the paper products at work that they do now, there would be literally TONS of trees, energy and land saved.
Keep checking back for more Green Legal News tips and tricks, and check out the Go Green homepage
here. To commit your firm to greener practices and join our Green Legal Firms list, just review the documents below and submit your application to
mprice@indybar.org. The deadline for applications is September 13.
Green Legal Initiative: Program Details and InformationApplication Form
member center
