United Airlines Cuts Fuel Costs by $290,000 Annually By Cutting Paper

Think about all of the paper you come across in your day-to-day lives. You wake up in the morning, brew a cup of coffee, and pick up the newspaper, a magazine, or maybe even the coupon flyer. Paper. You go to work and print out a few things for yourself and end up throwing them away because the color didn’t come out right. Paper. You go to the grocery store and forget to bring reusable bags. Paper. You order takeout, you see four menus in the bag. You throw out three. Paper. 

Every single day, more paper is wasted than most people tend to believe. According to The University of  Southern Indiana, to produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down, and recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.

The more you begin to take notice of the amount of paper we use and waste throughout our everyday lives, the more conscious and careful you become. While the effort to recycle and use products that are more eco-friendly or even made from recycled paper themselves, the most recent study conducted regarding the amount of Americans that recycle hasn’t been updated since 2007, and according to Environmental Leader, 23% of American’s still don’t recycle at all. 

In an effort to encourage everyone to hop on the bandwagon to save paper and recycle, many companies have begun switching over to more eco-friendly methods of printing, using paper, reusing paper, and through all of this, they are reducing costs and wastefulness.

The more we know, the more we are able to help the environment, and ultimately help our business to cut costs. According to fortune.com, “for every million dollars in revenue, a company generates an average 7.8 metric tons of waste. Almost 40% of that waste is easy-to-recycle paper. The study also found that if companies could reduce their paper waste by just 1%, they’d save almost $1 billion.”

One company beginning to cut not only their use of paper and their costs of it but also their cost of fuel is United Airlines. While one ounce of paper may sound like nothing, to the environment and United Airlines, a single ounce makes a huge difference.

In a recent article posted by Fox News, United Airlines was said to have saved 170,000 gallons of fuel by printing the in-flight magazines on lighter paper. As reported by the LA Times, United Airlines in-flight magazines, Hemisphere, have been brought down one ounce, now weighing 6.85 oz a piece. Not only is this lighter weighing paper saving the environment and reducing the overall weight on your average flight, carrying about 179 passengers by about 11 pounds per flight, it also cuts the cost of fuel by $290,000 annually.

For United Airlines to make the step to cutting the paper size and cost size, they are not only saving the environment through the use of less paper but also through the use of less fuel. This is the first of many big changes made by an incredibly large industry that just might be able to make a huge change. According to earthshare.org, “It takes 60 percent less energy to manufacture paper from recycled stock than from virgin materials.” So, if you’re looking to make a change, start purchasing your cartons of paper from BrokenCartons.com to not only save money, but also prevent the waste of unwanted paper.