b'ENVIRONMENT| LEGAL SECTOR| 2020SUSTAINABILITY INSIGHTPAPER USE 2020 AusLSA Member PerformanceAustralias national paper consumption is 223kg per person whileOur member firms reported a reduction of 281 tonnes of paper the US and Canada used an average of 229kg of paper per capitain 2020 compared to last years decrease of twenty-one percent annually, Western Europe got through 178.7 kilograms, Latinper person. That is equivalent to approximately 112,400 reams of America 43.02, Asia 41 and Africa 7.51 kilograms per person. Thatpaper or 6,744 trees, plus all the other environmental resources makes Australia the third largest consumer of paper per capita inused and impacts for its manufacture.the world. Member firms have been consistently reducing the amount To make 400 reams of A4 office printer paper, weighing one tonne,of paper they have been consuming through technology and it requires 24 trees plus the water, oil, landfill and associatedimproved processed and have reduced overall consumption by pollutants generated through manufacture. The paper industryforty-three percent per person since 2016. uses more water to produce a tonne of product than any otherAs with our other environmental metrics, it is unclear how much of industry. this paper reduction can be attributed to the COVID restrictions, In Offices, the use of e-mail, electronic document managementhowever further examination should be considered to determine and filing systems, imaging products and data storage andwhether or not such a trend can be maintained through normal compression techniques have all assisted to reduce paperbusiness opportunities.use in recent years. Following the changed business practices implemented to address COVID, we have seen further uptake of these practices and a corresponding decrease in the use of office paper. PAPER USERECYCLED PAPERkg per employee Paper recycling recovers waste paper and manufactures it into new paper products. Recycling paper involves breaking it into reusable cellulose fibres by mixing it with water and de-inking it. 111 There are three categories of paper feedstocks used to make 104 recycled paper:97Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper scrap from the 80 manufacture of paperPre-consumer waste is obtained from printers offcuts and run 63 errors, so it has never been used by consumers, and Post-consumer waste is paper and card that has been 28.78 186.96 previously used by consumers.2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Paper made from post-consumer waste makes the greatest contribution towards removing paper from the waste stream. In Australia, recycled paper often includes virgin fibre from plantations or native forests to improve quality. To be sure youre 2020 PAPER CONSUMPTIONmaximising the environmental benefits of recycled paper, it is Per employee for all firms generally best to choose paper products with the highest post-consumer content possible.64KGAdvantages of recycled paper compared with virgin pulpAVERAGE thirty-six percent less energy consumption forty-four percent fewer greenhouse gasesthirty-eight percent less waste papereighty-two percent less solid waste than virgin fibre paper.thirty-five percent less water pollution and seventy-four percent less air pollution4KG170KG MINIMUM MAXIMUM56'