The Benefits of A4 Paper: An Advocacy Statement
Several reasons why everyone, individuals, governments and other organisations should use paper sizes from the international A and B paper size series. North Americans should stop using 'Letter', 'Legal', 'Tabloid' and other nonstandard sizes in toto, replacing these with A or B series analogues.
| Size | Type | Short | Long | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LTR | whole sheet | 21.59 cm | 27.94 cm | 603.22 cm2 |
| print area (2.5 cm margins) | 16.59 cm | 22.94 cm | 380.57 cm2 (63.09% of total) | |
| A4 | whole sheet | 21.01 cm | 29.69 cm | 623.72 cm2 |
| diff from LTR | -2.71% | 6.27% | 3.40% | |
| print area (2.5 cm margins) | 16.01 cm | 24.69 cm | 395.22 cm2 (63.37% of total) | |
| diff from LTR | -3.52% | 7.64% | 3.85% |
As illustated in the above table, switching from LTR to A4 paper yeilds a 3.85% increase in print area (with margins of 2.5 cm). The variable cost of paper is directly and linearly related to its area; smaller sheets are composed of less wood pulp (and other paper ingredients). Although the print area of an A4 sheet is 3.85% greater than that of an LTR sheet, its total area is only 3.40% greater. The 0.45% difference between these two differences is a net efficiency gain for switching from LTR to A4 paper. In the long run, we should expect to save 0.45% from the cost of printing. That's a small percentage, but since the paper industry is so large, and since the benefit will be available forever, this savings will be worth achieving in the long run.
Note: margins can make a big difference! Even if you don't switch to A4 paper, consider changing the margins in your documents from 2.5 cm (1 inch) to 2.0 cm (0.8 inches). On many documents, you might not even notice this difference, but it will increase the print area on your page by more than 10% (on both LTR and A4 sheets).
Paper manufacturers will still earn the same income per square metre of paper they produce, but the consumer will realise a savings of 0.45% because he or she is using each sheet more efficiently.
Furthermore, where printing and photocopying incurs a cost per impression in addition to the cost of the sheet of paper, we might expect similar savings, since we will have 0.45% fewer sheets to print or copy.
According to Statistics Canada, sales by the Canadian paper industry were 31.0351 billion $ in 2007. Dollar sales in the sector have been in steady decline in recent years, e.g., from 33.3594 billion $ in 2003. (Source: http://www.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/manuf11.htm; accessed 2008-02-16).
Aspect Ratio
According to the USA's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, "Every year, the United States consumes over 90 million tons of paper. This paper use is an average of nearly 700 pounds [700/2.2 kg] per person — over ten times what it was at the turn of the century. The overall paper industry was [USD]$129 billion of [the USA's] [it said 'our'] economy (in 1993)."[http://eetd.lbl.gov/paper/ideas/html/copyfactsA.htm;2003-01-15]
""Standard" U.S. office paper is 20 lb. weight. There are about 200,000 such sheets in a ton. There are 100 to a pound and about 6 per ounce. A ream of such paper is 500 sheets, so there are 400 reams per ton, and each ream weighs 5 lbs. Paper prices vary, but a typical bulk cost is $1,000/ton, which is $2.50 per ream of 500 sheets, half a cent per sheet, 50 cents per pound, or 3 cents per ounce."[http://eetd.lbl.gov/paper/ideas/html/copyfactsA.htm;2003-01-15]
"The typical U.S. office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year."[http://eetd.lbl.gov/paper/ideas/html/copyfactsA.htm;2003-01-15]
"Paper Consumption in the U.S. has been remarkable stable at about 17 tons for each millions $ of GDP for several decades."[http://eetd.lbl.gov/paper/ideas/html/countrygraph.htm;2003-01-15]
The benefits of reducing paper consumption are legion: Lower paper costs Less pollution
Less paper use Smaller waste disposal cost
Lower storage costs Less energy use
Less storage space needed Fewer trees cut
Lower postage costs Less pulping
Easier document "handling" Less waste to be "recycled, burned, or landfilled"
Less waste production by organization Less community/national landfill capacity need
