Our behaviour can be heavily influenced by factors in our external environment. Affordances such as widely available recycle bins have allowed us to be reasonably efficient with our recycling of paper, but this could be improved by placing paper recycling bins in key areas (with high paper use):

• Offices
• Schools/Universities (especially at end of year when people throw away exam notes)
• Next to ATM’s (for receipts)

Prompts can also help remind people to perform sustainable behaviour. An example of a prompt in an office would be a sign saying ‘think before you print’ (shown below). This prompt would have the greatest effect by the office printer, an area where large amounts of paper may be used (sometimes unnecessarily).

Figure 1. Think before you print. (Haughton, n.d.)

Another strong factor that influences our behaviour is our social norms. If we release information on paper use in different offices compared to one another, those consuming above average amounts of paper will have a strong motivation to lower their consumption.

Positive reinforcement can be used to increase frequency of sustainable behaviour’s –> reduction in paper use. One example we could use is a green logo of recognition for institutions (offices or schools) that use amounts of paper lower than a fixed standard (e.g. less than 1000 sheets per employee per year).

While punishment can also be used to reduce behaviour it can also lead to more adverse effects such as hostility, so lets focus on rewarding for now!

Figure 2. Christmas Gift. (White, 2016)

Unfortunately a large amount of paper use is from large industries with a lot of power. If i send them a polite email asking them to reduce their use of paper I can’t expect to see any change (unless I am feeling optimistic/deluded). For economic giants we regular folk are largely powerless to make them change their ways.

This is where the government needs to step in. By enacting laws that tax and limit the paper industry we may hope to see some reduction. Although this is a much more complicated process.

If you are feeling discouraged as this point check out the ‘How you can help!’ section of the menu above!