Core77

Going 100% paperless is no small feat, unless you've managed to invent digital toilet paper (or install a bidet), quit making paper fonts (see previous post) or better yet, found an effective way to stop receiving junk mail. (No matter what you do or who you call, the credit card offers just don't stop!) Besides the obvious environmental factor, a paperless existence can streamline day-to-day activities. Google engineering director Chirs Uhlik and his family "live a practically paper-free life. The children are home-schooled on computers. Other sources of household paper -- lists, letters, calendars -- have become entirely digital." It sounds like an overwhelming transition, but digging oneself out from under the piles might be simpler than expected.

"Paper is no longer the master copy; the digital version is," says Brewster Kahle, the founder and director of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library. "Paper has been dealt a complete deathblow. When was the last time you saw a telephone book?"

...After rising steadily in the 1980s and '90s, worldwide paper consumption per capita has plateaued in recent years. In the richest countries, consumption fell 6 percent from 2000 to 2005, from 531 to 502 pounds a person. The data bolsters the view of experts like Mr. Kahle who say paper is becoming passé.