The decline in global paper consumption has major benefits for the environment and in sharing and providing data and information. It means less demand for timber, reduced deforestation, and lower industrial water and energy use associated with paper production, transportation, and distribution.Â
The flip side is that the environmental costs associated with how information is stored and transmitted are significant and multifaceted, with both direct and indirect impacts.
Direct Impact on the Environment
At the center of this tradeoff lies the vast infrastructure supporting the digital economy. To give a sense of the impact dimensions, data centers — essential to cloud storage, streaming, and AI — now rank among the world’s heaviest electricity consumers.Â
Many of these existing facilities still rely on fossil fuels, contributing to carbon emissions and air pollution. Their cooling systems require large amounts of water, which impacts the availability of water for local conventional needs, while the manufacturing of necessary hardware also creates emissions. With data demand projected to rise sharply, especially in the Global North, these impacts are expected to grow.
Indirect Impact on the Environment
Beyond electricity and water, the lifecycle of consumer electronics has introduced a secondary wave of environmental strain. Frequent hardware upgrades, driven by evolving software demands and shortened product life cycles, result in mounting piles of electronic waste. If not properly processed, discarded laptops, tablets, and phones can leach toxic substances into soil and groundwater.
Producing new devices also comes with a cost. It requires substantial quantities of rare earth metals, the mining and processing of which have significant energy demands in their own right and often result in environmental damage.Â
On the plus side, there are efforts to mitigate these direct and indirect impacts, including ways to transition to renewable energy or finance new energy, improve energy efficiency, design greener data centers, and address e-waste.Â
Changing Habits and the Transition
On the individual level, digital tools have fundamentally altered how people consume information. In Europe, daily readership of printed newspapers and magazines fell from 37 percent in 2012 to just 21 percent by 2022. In the United States, per capita paper consumption decreased by approximately 31% between 2000 and 2018, according to the Pew Research Center.
The shift has also permeated various sectors, with technologies such as digital signatures, electronic invoicing, and paperless filing systems helping organizations minimize paper usage. For example, banks have replaced in-person visits with apps and e-signatures, and retailers now issue digital receipts and use QR codes to streamline checkout, providing an enormous convenience and benefit for both them and their customers.Â
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Quantitative Impacts
Paper consumption has shown a downward trend in many regions. According to the 2020 Global Forest Resources Assessment, global paper consumption reached its peak in 2017 and has declined since. In the U.S., the amount of paper consumed dropped by 27% from 2005 to 2019, with U.S. businesses consuming approximately 12.1 million tons of office paper in 2019, down from 16.1 million tons in 2005.
With Caveats, Less Paper Has Much Going for It
As more organizations and individuals adopt digital solutions, this quantitative reduction in paper usage is likely to continue at a rapid pace in the future. For personal and business use, at grocery stores or pharmacies, at the movies, to board a flight, at highway toll stations, or when paying taxes, and for a myriad other purposes, we will no longer rely on paper. And there will undoubtedly be new technological advancements that will further accelerate this “evolution.”
However, while such a transformation may be seen as beneficial for economies and many individuals, it is more of a cautionary tale for the environment. This need not be, of course, if adequate attention is paid to the impacts of higher energy and water needs, the effects of mitigating rare earth mining, and disposing of hardware wastes.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com columnists are their own, not those of Impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: gryffyn m.
