Paper Cuts

<p>The paper industry is reportedly the 4th highest carbon-producing industry in the world. Is that true, and what are the environmental implications of that if it is? Is it just playing around the edges to focus on reducing the carbon footprint of the paper industry, or should we also be addressing the issue of over-consumption in all its forms? Is it even possible to completely eliminate paper from our lives?</p> <p>It’s another thought provoking and varied question sent in by another of our listeners, this time coming from Eddie in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. Stuart and William try to break it down into bite sized chunks, and come up with actions we can all take to address issues discussed. Eddie’s question is as follows:</p> <p>“Loving listening to your podcast and I especially like that you don’t have expert guests all the time like other podcasts. I enjoy the way you challenge yourselves with random questions you talk about, as you say it&#39;s probably therapy for you both with the way you explore the unknown cold, and unprepared. You likely get to hear your own thinking only a split second before us listeners?  You could maybe consider expanding on the questions further by having more episodes to cover them, and have guests or experts on the later subsequent episodes, just to mop up the nuances? That could provide material for a series of short mini series which I see you already do. It&#39;s hard to cover all the points in one episode as there&#39;s always more that could be said. </p> <p>My question is, for 50 years that I know of, the concept of paperless societies have been spoken about, yet we still haven’t got there. The paper industry I’m informed is the 4th highest carbon producing industry in the world, and whether that&#39;s true or not it needs to change. I’ve heard of new technology that can remove ink from paper up to 10 times, before the sheet itself needs to be recycled. </p> <p>Recycling being a polluting process in and of itself. This new tech basically vaperises much of the ink by laser, and