How to Conserve Trees

Trees are one of our most important natural resources. In addition to wood's industrial uses, much of the oxygen we breathe is produced by our world's forests.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Recycled paper
• Recycle bins
• Handkerchiefs
• Cloth rags

1. Conserve trees by recycling whenever possible. Instead of dumping paper into a landfill, participate in any recycling programs your local government sponsors. Establish a recycling program to conserve paper at your office.

2. Buy paper that's made from recycled materials. From notebooks to printer paper, it's easy to conserve trees by choosing to purchase recycled paper products exclusively.

3. Support corporations that make an effort to conserve trees. More and more major corporations are hopping on the environmentalist bandwagon by taking steps to conserve natural resources. Show your support of their efforts by giving your hard-earned money to responsible corporations.

4. Construct a new home using environmentally friendly building methods. Traditional home construction designs use an unnecessary amount of trees. You can save hundreds of trees by building a home from cob, poured earth or through the PSP building method.

5. Find some creative uses for junk mail. The practice of mass-mailing unsolicited advertisements is ineffective and needlessly wasteful. Instead of throwing away pieces of junk mail, consider using them to make grocery lists or take phone messages.

6. Configure your printers and copy machines to print on both sides of a page. There's no practical reason for printing documents on only one side of a page, and by printing on both sides, you can instantly cut your paper consumption in half.

7. Cancel your subscriptions to daily newspapers. It's estimated that nearly 30 million trees are cleared each year solely for the purpose of printing newspapers. Read online versions of newspapers during the week and limit your hard copies to special Sunday editions.

8. Limit your beef consumption. The beef used to supply many American restaurants and grocery stores comes from tropical rain forests that have been cleared so that cattle herds can graze. Consider eating more fish, chicken or vegetarian dishes.

9. Abandon the practice of using paper products to clean. Instead of using roll after roll of paper towels, consider switching to washable rags. Use a handkerchief instead of tissues.

Tips & Warnings

• In addition to taking individual action to conserve trees, consider making a donation to a charitable organization that helps to promote tree conservation.

• A degree of deforestation is unavoidable. Offset the effects of necessary deforestation by planting a few trees of your own.