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How to Support Earth-Friendly Companies

Learn how to be a green consumer

Do you know what a "green consumer" is? It's what you call a person who buys products with an awareness of the environment.

In Japan there are notebooks with "Earth-friendly" symbols or words saying "This product is made from recycled paper" printed on the cover or back. There are also those with nothing printed on them. In the notebooks with the environmentally friendly symbols or writing, the paper is slightly cream-colored. In those that are not marked, the paper is plain white.

There are two methods for making the notebook paper. One way is to chop down trees from the forest and cut them finely into chips, extract their fiber (pulp) with a combination of chemicals and heat, then rinse and thinly spread out the pulp and dry it.

The other is to collect used paper from schools, people's homes and offices, bring it to a factory, soak it until it's as mushy as mud to return it to pulp, and then remove the ink.

Do you recycle old newspapers and magazines at home? In reusing old paper, there is no need to cut trees from the forest. This way we also reduce the amount of garbage we make. Recycled paper is creamy white since it's more environmentally friendly not to use chemicals to bleach the paper.

Since forests all over the world are disappearing and there is no more room for garbage, don't you think as long as we're using paper, we might as well use notebooks with recycled paper? The various symbols on these notebooks, such as those that say, "This product is made from recycled paper" or "The impact of this product on the environment is small," are called "ecolabels."

In making the choice between a notebook with an ecolabel or notebook without one, you are making the decision of whether to save the trees in the forest or to chop them down. The person who says, "As long as there's a choice, I'll buy the one that's earth-friendly," is a green consumer. They are the ones who will greatly help protect the earth's resources.

"Why?" you might ask. Because if a lot of ecological products like notebooks with recycled paper sell in the stores, the factories will make a lot more like them. Depending on everyone's choice of what notebook they buy, the factories will change what kind of notebook they make and what kind of paper they use. This is the power of the green consumer. Not only with notebooks and stationery goods, every product you buy is a vote for the environment.
Let's shop with a careful awareness of the companies and products we want to support!

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