From Trees to Technology: Replacing Paper Use With USB Drives

This instructable aims to demonstrate the positive effects that using USB drives will have on the environment, using statistics involving things like the amount of paper normally used per year. If everyone in the world was to use a flash drive to hold things that would normally be written on paper, an abundant amount of paper--and, in turn, trees--would be saved.

We use about 16493167702 trees per year, and the majority of this could be saved by using flash drives. This will in turn help the environment by saving trees and by not decreasing the amount of oxygen on our planet. The next two slides show the pros and cons of using flash drives instead of paper. The image below shows a size comparison between a flash drive and a quarter.

The average 8GB flash drive, which holds the equivalent of approximately 136,000 Word, Google, or Pages Documents, costs from $27-$35. The cumulative cost of paper, pencils, and ink for printing on paper over several years would end up being much, much more than this. This would also save up to around 136,000 pieces of 8.5"x11" paper per person. This adds up to about 859,299.3 cubic centimeters of paper per person. The image shows how this volume measurement was calculated.

Some of the cons of this idea include the fact that more computers would have to be available for public use. Most office workers already have their own computer, but school students would have to each have their own. This is something their parents, or the school administration, would have to deal with. Computers/laptops can also be quite expensive. The MacBook Pro can cost from $1119 to $2799.