U.S. Paper Use Shrinks, a Bit

Information Management Journal, May/Jun 2007 by Swartz, Nikki

Electronic document technologies - such as e-mail, PDF, and instant messaging - may be causing businesses' paper use in the United States to decline. According to InfoTrends/ CAP Ventures, a consulting firm for the digital imaging industry, 2007 will mark a turning point for percapita use of "cut-size sheets" of paper in the United States. In 2008, the organization predicts, each man, woman, and child will use 4,847 sheets of the office paper, 36 sheets fewer than this year.

"We're finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace," John Maine, vice president of RISI, a pulp and paper economic consulting firm, told The Christian Science Monitor. "More information is being transmitted electronically, and more and more people are comfortable with the information residing only in electronic form without printing multiple backups."

The demand for paper used to outstrip the growth of the U.S. economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in sales despite a healthy economy, according to The Christian Science Monitor. In the early to mid-90s, the booming economy and improved desktop printing helped boost paper sales by 6 or 7 percent annually.

But now, the growth rate of paper sales in the United States is flattening by about half a percent each year. Merilyn Dunn, communications supplies director for InfoTrends, attributes the decline to advances in digital databases and communication systems, employment trends, and a generation of office workers who are more comfortable with the new technology - 47 percent entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.

The effects of these advances are being felt in the paper markets. "Paper consumption levels are essentially flat," Dunn told Computerworld.com. Sales of cut-sheet paper are expected to grow at less than 2 percent over the next few years, a sharp drop from the double-digit growth rates of 10 years ago.