Global paper consumption increased by half since 1980

London, April 5 (IANS) Global paper consumption since 1980 has gone up by almost half, although communication today is mostly by email and text, online statements and by fax, a media report said Thursday.

The worst offenders are the Belgians, with the equivalent of 8.51 40-foot trees worth of paper being consumed by each member of the population per year, Daily Mail quoted The Economist magazine as saying.

The magazine points out, however, that Belgium's position at the top of the tree-consumption tree is partly due to the EU headquarters being there, which prints vast amounts of paperwork in countless languages.

The No.2 spot is taken by Finland, which apparently does convert a lot of its paper into domestic packaging, thereby distorting its tree consumption.

The top next three worst offenders are Germany, Japan and Sweden - despite all three having technology-driven economies. The rest of the top 10 is made up of the US, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands, South Korea and Canada. Britain comes in at No 11.

Next in the chart comes France, Spain, Portugla, Ireland and China, which only uses 1.81 trees per person. Azerbaijan is the most tree-friendly nation, with only 0.16 trees per person being used each year.