Treehugger - Latest Comments in The Paperless Home

Re: The Paperless Home

Kathryn Harlan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:25:00 -0000

Why should anyone use a compter over paper. Paper is recyclable and a computer with its electricity is not. Even an old computer is NOT recyclable. Many old computer are dumped in Africa because their components are too toxic to dump in U.S. landfills. I think we have it all wrong! We should encourage using recycled paper and NOT more computers. Computers have there [place but the cost to the environment of using ONLY computers simply creates another form of waste. At least paper never created health hazards!

Re: The Paperless Home

mark seidner — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:41:20 -0000

Joanna,

There is a program available to convert printed pages into editable text using your digital camera. It's called TopOCR. Simply take a picture of a document and in seconds this program will convert it to text for you save. No need to use a copier. You can even use the camera on your cell phone. Amazingly, the program is free! It's available at www.topocr.com

Re: The Paperless Home

Chad — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:28:05 -0000

Unfortunately I see phone books and newspapers sitting outside my building daily. People aren't even picking them up, so there is no way they could possibly be using them. I have been trying to get paperless billing for the longest time.I go to their sites, sign up for it, and then I get a bill in the mail. It's nice they have the options on their sites, now it is about execution (at least in my case).

Re: The Paperless Home

paulfromfree411 — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:49:10 -0000

We here at 1-800-FREE411 are doing our part to get rid of phone books. We encourage opting out of them entirely, if possible, or just immediately recycling them as soon as they arrive on your doorstep -- the more advertisers see how they're not being used, the quicker phone books will become obsolete. Heck, they're already obsolete -- you can get business, gov't, and residential listings via our number. Cost-free and paper-free, naturally.

Re: The Paperless Home

Joshua — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:50:44 -0000

I like the Idea of the paperless home which would save logging of trees but one question, what about our important documents like our birth certificates?

Re: The Paperless Home

Carter kirkwood — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:52:51 -0000

I noticed the discussion with Joanna in which she said "can you tell us how to photograph a document and make it text-search-able" and I share the sentiment. That was one of the reasons why I founded www.vaultstreet.com.

VaultStreet automatically collects original PDF files from financial institutions and utilities for you. That way you never need to deal with the hassle of scanning and OCR (which is especially poor for financial documents). Plus VaultStreet is a truly end-to-end paperless system so the documents never ever need to be printed.

Re: The Paperless Home

Eugene — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:33:21 -0000

"why not just learn to recycle"

Our city has no recycling program and the suburbs won't accept it.

I also have no place to store it at home.

I also keep electronic copies and keep an off site backup, can't do that with paper easily.

My small low power laptop just past the 5 year mark but I may soon need a larger drive as my 120G is pretty full.

Going paperless has helped with clutter and storage. I store years worth of data on a tiny 2.5" drive in a laptop thats the size of a book, Its replaced whole filing cabinets worth of paper, books worth of photographs, and desks to sort it on. I've eliminated late fees from the usps loosing my payments.

Re: The Paperless Home

Nancy — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:50:18 -0000

There are some stores that sell scrap paper (of any kind: newsprint, scrapbook paper, watercolor paper, regular printer paper) - a lot of their inventory is donated from businesses and such. Their stuff is resold to (i'm assuming mostly) crafters and artists who can reuse the stuff. Even if they don't plan to resell donated phone books (they might be getting too many), they will probably still have a massive stash of to-be-recycled paper.

These stores probably only exist in larger cities, but I can't be sure. If you ask local crafters and artists, they will probably know.

If you're into art yourself, those columns of names provide endless possibilities 8^)

Re: The Paperless Home

Ren — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:49:01 -0000

As wonderful as that seems, it's a bad idea for anyone to become TOO dependent on anything. Yes, it's a good thing to cut back on the amount of paper used, but why do it at the cost of living in a completely digital world? I don't know about anyone else, but I like to have pictures of the ones I love there in my house, not on computer.

And if you're going to go as far as to go "paperless" why not just learn to recycle? And not just for paper, for all materials.

Re: The Paperless Home

SteveL — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:31:54 -0000

I hate phone books. The phone company even has the nerve to charge extra if you DON'T want your number listed in their dead-tree tomes.

One solution might be to get a cell phone from a company that doesn't print books.

When I print, I use the back of printed sheets of paper I have salvaged from the garbage or recycling bins.

Re: The Paperless Home

Jeremy Stephan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:50:31 -0000

I would surmise that the phone books are a HUGE ancillary revenue source for the phone companies hence the reason that they keep on distributing them. Their promise to advertisers, and how they justify rates, is that one phone book gets distributed to each of their customers. It's the promise of eyeballs, but beyond that they can not guarantee anyone reads them.....only receives them. Like most things....it is all about the dollar. That's where we need to really think about what is happening. At what price and cost???? We have become so focused on profit and revenue that most just don't care about anything else. That is truly unfortunate....and it is just not the phone books, but nearly every other product and service delivered by a company.

Re: The Paperless Home

Heather — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:30:52 -0000

I have asked the phone book company not to send me anymore phone books but they did not even respond to my email and when I called them, they acted like there was nothing they could do. I try to live as electronically as I can and when I have to print something, to use both sides of paper and only print the pages that are necessary but feel forced to waste paper when they deliver the numerous phone books to my door. I may try posting a sign that I do not accept solicitations or free stuff of any kind on my door step (I do not even have my packages delivered here). Does anyone have any other ideas on stopping phone book deliveries (it bothers many of my neighbors also!)??

Re: The Paperless Home

Jack — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:51:17 -0000

"Well then which is the lesser of the 2 evils? I face this issue daily in my attempts to be more green. Paper vs electronics, organic vs local, cloth diapers vs disposable diapers, etc.."

Here's my quicklist greater-of-two-goods principles:

• Local over organics.

• Farmers markets over supermarkets.

• Cloth diapers augmented by disposable diapers for emergencies. Yeah, cleaning poop is yuck that we get used to.

• Bikes over light-rail over buses

• Energy conservation over PV

• Wind over PV

• PV over natural gas...

• As little paper as you can manage with as few electronics as you can manage (no robot dog, or Wii. e-readers for me are questionable)

• Preventive herbs and good sleep over drugs. Though for somethings, drugs are super useful. :)\

Re: The Paperless Home

brennan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:44:52 -0000

There's nothing worse than attending a meeting and the presenter has printed out copies of his 30-slide powerpoint for everyone.

Why don't people get it?!

Re: The Paperless Home

john m — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:51:13 -0000

Somebody needs to do a real analysis of resource usage. Energy isn't the only resource that goes into computers, and it doesn't help that they still get thrown out every few years. The idea that a new laptop will save the earth sounds a little too good to be true.

Re: The Paperless Home

Legodragonxp — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:17:20 -0000

If only the paper in telephone books was more 'toilet friendly'. At least then I could find a use for the four a year I get rather than just chucking them in the recycle bin. Imagine the somewhat twisted fun of wiping with a lawyer's ad? Blowing your nose on the car dealerhsip section?

-Lego

Re: The Paperless Home

Wayne Luke — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:17:16 -0000

For documents, I use a Scanner and simply import them as TIF images. I use TIF because it seems to be the easiest to process through OCR (optical character recognition) later. The only paper copies we keep are birth and marriage certificates and the court decree for my divorce from my first wife.

One thing not mentioned in this little article is Online Banking. By using online banking (provided by most large institutions), you can eliminate paper bills, bank statements and other announcements plus keep a better eye on your finances. I have all my bills sent to me electronically through my bank and simply pay them once a month in about 2 minutes. My bank statement is electronic as well. If I ever need a printed copy for any reason, I can just get it from any bank branch. This has dramatically reduced the paper coming into the home.

Now if only the local newspaper would invest in digital ink and allow me to get the daily paper on that with bluetooth integration, then I can elminate another incoming waste stream. The one thing that I have not embraced yet is digital books. There is something about relaxing on the couch with the paper pages of a book and a cup of coffee that a digital reader simply doesn't give at this time.

Re: The Paperless Home

dokein — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:59:39 -0000

I'd be thrilled to only get one phone book per year. I usually get 3 or 4, one from the phone company and the rest from other companies producing their own versions. Isn't competition wonderful?

Re: The Paperless Home

Jenn — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:23:06 -0000

Well then which is the lesser of the 2 evils? I face this issue daily in my attempts to be more green. Paper vs electronics, organic vs local, cloth diapers vs disposable diapers, etc..

Re: The Paperless Home

Eugene — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:05:03 -0000

Joanna,

Where is all that paper coming from? Its much easier to get the documents electronically rather than scan and ocr them. Sign up for paperless billing and statements for any bills/banks/etc you deal with. I've been pretty much paperless for a while now.

Re: The Paperless Home

Emily — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:03:29 -0000

Thanks for the OCR link! My canon canoscan 4-400f (purchased because it has the ability to scan negtives and will work with my imac) came with the OCR software as part of it package but I had no idea what to do with it.

So excited. My job just got a little easier.

THANK YOU!

Re: The Paperless Home

lefty — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:17:32 -0000

And then the power goes out for hours and you can't even read your favourite book by candle light since you forgot to charge the E Reader. :)

But seriously, the phone book issue seems more pressing on people's minds in the comment stream. It's so annoying to get mine delivered and not have a single use for it. Treehugger solutions?? Stop the companies from delivering it to all our doorsteps? Do not BOOK me service?? Montreal is swamped with them...

Re: The Paperless Home

Andy — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:54:32 -0000

So by going paperless I need 10 LCD screens just between the living room and kitchen? I barely use paper, and I surely don't have all that rubbish in that image. Buying so many screens has got to be way worse for the environment (e-waste anyone) than paper.

Screens = not well recycled in this country, non-renewable, expensive, contain hazardous chemicals

Paper = renewable, easily recycleable, non-toxic

How about we just reduce paper load significantly without the overconsumerism?

Re: The Paperless Home

Joanna — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:39:50 -0000

Thanks so much for replying. I was thinking that scanning would be better ... but had no idea about OCR programs.

I find it hard to believe that homes are more paperless than offices: not this one, anyway, there's hardly room for my laptop on my desk for all the piles of paper.

OCR may be the boost I need ;)

Joanna

Re: The Paperless Home

Debbie in Iowa — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:21:56 -0000

Sadly, telephone books have not gone away. Every year my apartment building gets a mountain of them from several different companies -- they leave way more than one book per apartment, too.