Economy

Is the world headed for life without paper?

defores

Transition to paperless transactions will go a long way in conserving our forests . FILE PHOTO | NMG

Two millenia ago, the Egyptians used papyrus for documents that never generated a waste problem. But the rise of paper moved to litter streets, fields and landfill sites globally.

Now the technological revolution is seeing the use of paper declining globally, with bonuses ahead for the environment.

In the US and Western Europe, paper consumption has been declining since 2006.

RISI, a pulp and paper industry intelligence company, in its Global 15-Year Paper Outlooks, reported that paper demand in the two regions has since shrunk by 23 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.

“We forecast that in every paper and newsprint grade and in every major end use, the West European demand in 2024 will be less than that in 2009. Western European graphic paper in 2024 is expected to be 20 per cent less than 2009 levels, thus representing 6.6 million metric tonnes of loss,” reported RISI.

In Kenya, the rise of automation has, likewise, led to a decline in office paper use, as the private sector, government ministries and institutions have all moved their service platforms online, in a bid to promote paperless transactions, with the actual decline in consumption beginning from last year.

Collection system

In 2015, the Kenya Revenue Authority officially went paperless by launching its web based revenue collection system, iTax, country wide. 

This has enabled it to end inefficient manual processes, thus saving time it takes to file returns, operate in multiple locations, increase productivity, save on office space, and raise its revenue collection. But it has also reduced paper use countrywide.

Consumers in Kenya have also embraced paperless transactions in their daily activities. Airtime top-ups for instance, are now more common via mobile money, using services such as M-Pesa rather than scratch cards.

This has seen the money spent by East Africa’s largest telco Safaricom #ticker:SCOM on the production of scratch cards dall by more than 14 per cent since 2013, to Sh94.4 million last year.

The telco has also reported a steady growth in airtime top-ups directly through M-PESA from 32 per cent of the airtime bought in 2013 to 41 per cent by 2016.

Communication

Consumers have also shifted to digital communication, with the country’s 35m mobile phone subscribers primarily using social networks and messaging apps, and the volume of letters sent dropping sharply.

In 2008, Kenya was sending an average of 24 million letters a quarter.

In the most recent report by the Communications Authority of Kenya, the latest quarterly average was 8.2 million, down from 15.8 million in the previous quarter.

The corporate world is also no longer reliant on paper for internal communication, using email, and apps such as Dropbox and Google docs, as well as flash drives for storing, editing, reviewing and transferring documents rather than printed copies.

Financial institutions, particularly banks, have likewise adopted electronic means of communicating with customers, media and stakeholders, rolling out paperless banking, and introducing digital agents and merchant systems.

Mobile banking, emails and text message alert users to transactions and even statements are now digital, with customers in some banks having to part with a fee to obtain a paper statement.   
All of these innovations have reduced the use of paper and the consequent deforestation.

Yet, there is still progress to be achieved, according to conservation organisation WWF.

It is estimated that 18 million acres of forest are still being lost each year globally, equalling a loss of 20 football fields every minute to paper production.

100 years

If the current rate of deforestation continues, it will take less than 100 years to destroy all the rainforests on the earth, according to the Environmental Network Organisation.

The loss of forests also currently contributes 12 per cent to 17 per cent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

But WWF estimates that a 10 to 30 per cent reduction in paper usage is possible simply through the use of available technology.

This shift also reduces office costs.

According to a survey by YouGov, a UK internet-based market research firm, small to medium-sized businesses in the UK waste the equivalent of Sh7.3 billion a day looking for documents they have ‘put somewhere’, but by creating a paperless office, with documents held digitally and findable using word searches, the cost can be minimised.