b'ENVIRONMENT| LEGAL SECTOR| 2022SUSTAINABILITY INSIGHTPAPER USE 2022 AusLSA Member PerformanceFour hundred reams of A4 office printer paper weighs one tonne.In Australia, law firms, their customers, courts, and tribunals Its production requires 24 trees plus the water, oil, landfill andhave made significant changes to how they operate through associated pollutants generated through manufacture. The paperthe extensive use of digital technology to facilitate document industry uses more water to produce a tonne of product than anysubmission. Technology providers have also provided a real other industry. alternative to hard copy production and management in the last three years. There has been a sharp decline in the need for paper as COVIDFirms have consistently reduced the amount of paper they restrictions forced commerce to quickly adapt to electronicconsume through technology, improved processes, and necessity. formats. According to Forbes Magazine, large paper companiesThe amount of paper used by AusLSA members since 2017 has are now closing factories in response to a market that no longerdecreased by over two-thirds (68 per cent). AusLSA members have demands vast quantities of paper. Nikkei reports that theused 1,436 tonnes less paper this year than they used in 2018. This production of office print paper in developed countries hasis a saving of around 574,000 reams of paper or 65 semitrailers reduced by twenty to thirty per cent. loaded with paperIt is disappointing, however that, of the remaining paper used by firms, only around 31 per cent is recycled. This is similar to last year but has grown from 2019, when the figure was only 22 per cent.AusLSA members have demonstrated they can continue to service their clients and meet the obligations of the Courts in the rapidly transitioning digital world. The challenge for post-COVID is to maintain these processes and not revert to old practices.Paper Use per Employee RECYCLED PAPER100 9390 Paper recycling recovers wastepaper and manufactures it into new paper products. Recycling paper involves breaking it into 80 reusable cellulose fibres by mixing it with water and de-inking it.70 6758 There are three categories of paper feedstocks used to make 60 recycled paper:KG50 41Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper scrap from 40 30 the manufacture of paper30 Pre-consumer waste is obtained from printers offcuts and 20 run errors, so it has never been used by consumers, and10 Post-consumer waste is paper and card that has been 0 previously used by consumers.2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Paper made from post-consumer waste makes the greatest Paper Use per Employee contribution towards removing paper from the waste stream. In Australia, recycled paper often includes virgin fibre from 2022 PAPER CONSUMPTIONplantations or native forests to improve economics and quality.Per employee for all firms It is generally best to choose paper products with the highest post- consumer content possible to maximise the environmental 29KGbenefitsAVERAGE Advantages of recycled paper compared with virgin pulpthirty-six per cent less energy consumption forty-four per cent fewer greenhouse gasesthirty-eight per cent less wastepapereighty-two per cent less solid waste than virgin fibre paper.0.6KG96KGthirty-five per cent less water pollution and seventy-four per cent less air pollutionMINIMUM MAXIMUM72'