Two Sides releases new Fact Sheet outlining why paper-based communications should remain the default choice In an effort to reduce costs, a growing number of companies are switching customers from paper to electronic communications — without their consent. This move to make digital communications the “default” is frustrating many in the United States and Canada who want to retain a choice in how they receive information. Millions of North Americans choose not to go online or still lack Internet access, including many seniors and people living in rural areas. In addition, a majority prefer paper over digital for many of the reasons outlined in this new Fact Sheet. We hope that when companies are armed with the facts below, they’ll make the right choice for their customers.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) recognized Dart Container Corporation with the 2016 AF&PA Leadership in Sustainability Award for Paper Recovery for Recycling for Dart’s Employee Recycling Center. The award was presented at AF&PA’s annual meeting on Friday, Nov. 11 in Cary, North Carolina. “Dart Container is leading by example with their Employee Recycling Center, which has made paper recovery for recycling easier and more accessible for their employees and their families,” said AF&PA President and CEO Donna Harman. Dart Container opened a drive-through recycling facility at its Mason, Michigan headquarters where employees have access to free, convenient paper recycling. Regular curbside residential recycling services in the area are uncommon, and often require payment. In its first three months, the facility recycled nearly 93,000 pounds of paper products. click Read More below for more of the story

China's efforts to slow land degradation and climate change by planting trees and restoring grasslands have shifted water around the country in huge, unforeseen ways, new research shows. Between 2001 and 2020, changes in vegetation cover reduced the amount of fresh water available for humans and ecosystems in the eastern monsoon region and northwestern arid region, which together make up 74% of China's land area, according to a study published Oct. 4 in the journal Earth's Future. Over the same period, water availability increased in China's Tibetan Plateau region, which makes up the remaining land area, scientists found. "We find that land cover changes redistribute water," study co-author Arie Staal, an assistant professor of ecosystem resilience at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, told Live Science in an email. "China has done massive-scale regreening over the past decades. They have actively restored thriving ecosystems, specifically in the Loess Plateau. This has also reactivated the water cycle."