Save forests by nixing printed prescription information

While America’s eastern seaboard has been battered by severe storms this year, our West Coast has experienced extreme temperatures and rising sea levels. The cause? Climate change.

One overlooked contributor to the rapid warming of our planet is the waste generated by unnecessary paper production.

At Green America, we worked with corporations to reduce unnecessary printing. CVS, notorious for long receipts, saved 87 million yards of receipt paper within four months of our Skip the Slip campaign.

Now, we’ve found another ally in the fight against climate change. Health care companies are required by law to produce 90 billion sheets of printed prescribing information each year—a practice that the Food and Drug Administration has proposed ending, but Congress has prevented the change.

Printed prescribing information, which is provider-facing and available online, eliminates nearly 11 million trees each year, accelerating the climate change that is currently impacting our communities. It’s time for Congress to stop blocking the logical, sustainable solution.

Dan Howells

Green America

Washington, D.C.