Creating a Tree-Free Home

At first the phrase “tree-free” may seem anything but eco-friendly, but when it comes to the products you use in your home, tree-free is the way to be. 

Of course this doesn’t mean chopping down that 20 foot maple in the backyard. Tree-free means reducing or eliminating paper products in the house. There are a million places we use paper everyday, from sticky notes to disposable plates. Just spend a day counting how many wood-based products you use and you’ll see; it’s everywhere, and most of the time it’s unnecessary. Besides producing excess waste that is often not properly disposed of, paper products also reflect the continued deforestation we see affecting ecosystems throughout the world. There’s more than one reason to leave the trees outside.

To start purging tree-based products you can look into replacing paper towels and napkins with cloth. They last longer and can be thrown into the wash for sanitation and cleanliness. Cotton cloth is also biodegradable, so when the towel finally gives out you can put it in the compost. 

Toilet paper with a high post-consumer content (at least 80%) is a healthy medium too. No one wants to get rid of their toilet paper, but by using unbleached, recycled paper you’re helping to keep trees standing. The same goes for printer paper. You can also find hemp paper, or paper from alternative sources, although it is more expensive. Double-sided printing and creating a box of scrap printing paper is also a good idea for those quick-prints that don’t need to be professional, that way you’re not using a whole clean sheet for a small purpose.

An erasable family board is also a good idea when it comes to eliminating excess note paper. Chalkboards and whiteboards work equally well and you can even find personal boards to make quick-lists. You can also look into programs like Apple Stickies on your desktop to save the actual sticky paper from use and then disuse. 

When it comes to the big picture of paper conservation, small steps are good, but bigger ones are too, like searching for alternatives to newly-cut wood when constructing or repairing any part of the house structure. There are also ways to recycle the excess wood you find around your house, working further towards creating a tree-free abode.

AceFisch | My Bio & Articles

I am an junior English major/ Philosophy minor at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Currently I am spending the spring of 2009 studying at the University College Cork in Cork, Ireland.