28 March 2024, Thursday

Today's name day(s): . Tomorrow will be Gladys, Glen, Glenda, Glenn, Glenna, Gloria name day(s).

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Dear Guest,

At this point, we would like to bring to your attention the European news that is related to environmental protection efforts and is significant in terms of reducing paper consumption.

First, we would like to list here some data that can be put forward as an argument for sustainable development and urge the paperwork of everyday life as soon as possible. Undoubtedly, everything has two sides. There is no absolute good or wrong solution, as almost all human activities put some strain on the environment. The fact that i.e. an e-mail or an e-book if not printed out does not harm the environment, as over the years electronic media and computers are depreciated into hazardous waste and the electricity that drives them can also come from burning fossil fuels! Besides, electronic devices and the software that runs on them require more and higher levels of knowledge from their users than a simple book that has proven itself well over hundreds of years. Although any book's scope is perceived tight in our modern life, especially in educational and scientific applications, distribution is inconvenient; prices are getting higher. The book is slowly becoming a luxury item. The printing industry seeks to highlight the shortcomings and environmental damage of electronic culture for its own sake. We know that computer technology and the internet is more advanced and evolving alternatives to the paper economy in some areas and indispensable tools in our daily lives. Besides, much of the paper-based services have become redundant. Others cannot be implemented on paper, and many more have never had paper-based services.
In printing circles, the ancient sage Cicero is quoted quite often: „A room without books is like a body without a soul." However, the printing profession, which has almost completely switched to digital printing, knows best that without the eBooks so important for cultivating and preserving culture (e.g. print-ready PDFs, which are also the source of book production!), the industry would come to a decade. The advantages and disadvantages of the standard comparison of human development and nature protection points of view favour computers, devices, and other digital content on the balance sheet. And yet, the paper-based cultural economy still dominates in almost every field today. The following few data just prove this statement:

- The total book turnover in Europe: € 22.4 billion/year, in Germany: € 6.54 billion/year, in Hungary: € 150 million/year (i.e. HUF 55 billion/year, in 2019).

- The world's annual book publications (over 2 million titles!) would fit on a 1 TB hard drive if we stored all the works in one copy. (Annual book publications in Europe: about 700,000, in Germany: 80,000 [in 2018], in England: 188,000 [in 2018], in Hungary: 14,000. [in 2019])

- Hungary's annual paper consumption is approx. 910,000 tons, 90% of which is imports and only 550,000 tons of recycled paper. German consumption: 20 Million t/year, world production: 390 Million t/year. Hungarian printing houses use 600 thousand tons of paper per year, German printing houses more than 2 million tons.

- In Hungary, paper consumption per capita is approx. 200 kg/year; most of its source is not books magazines, but unsolicited advertising newspaper. A fraction of this is collected, but a significant part of it is unfortunately incinerated - especially in the countryside - even though they are mostly made of flame retardant treated paper! When producing 200 kg of paper, approx. 160 kilograms of carbon dioxide is released into the air, in addition to the carbon dioxide and other toxic compounds released by incineration.

- Out of 1 ton of recycled newsprint theoretically, wood materials corresponding to 12 trees could be (re-)produced. Unfortunately, the paper can only be recycled up to 4-5 times because the cellulosic fibres are torn in its material. Only half of the paper mills in the EU use recycled paper. The paper industry is the 4th largest energy-consuming sector. The paper industry uses 20% of the world's timber!

- In Hungary, only companies have a total of approx. HUF 600 billion is spent on printing and photocopying. (This is 3% of the total Hungarian GDP!)

- Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet, which provides habitat for more than 80% of land life. About 300 million people and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer. Although the overall forest area of Europe is growing, the size of Budapest's entire city (525 km2) forest area disappears on Earth every 35 hours, namely 35 football pitches per minute, due to irresponsible forest management! If this rate does not decline, our forests will disappear in around 350 years. An adult tree produces more oxygen in one year than a person inhales in the same amount of time.

- To produce 1000 kg of paper: 417 m³ of water, 1700 kg of wood (about 15-17 trees, usually spruce, which grows for 30 years before it reaches cut-out size), 717 kWh of energy, 181 kg of limestone, 87 kg of sulfur, 6 tons water vapor, 60 kg of chlorine are required!

- The world is experiencing a drastic increase in timber and all wooden products, so the price of paper and supply cannot keep pace with the rise in demand.

- It is not directly related to excessive paper use and irresponsible forest management, but provides a shocking example of environmental destruction and the final destruction of green spaces that are already threatened by desertification - and in Europe - the Andalusian white spot: click here! Satellite image of the world's largest coherent greenhouse facility.


And then finally here are some positive green news too! You can find them in the Green News category of our Newsletter service.


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