Happy New Year to you Lily!
I'm gonna have to steal that Department moniker & will make myself the American Director.
Here in the States, some proponent of unbridled capitalism a long time ago decided that it was peachy keen to let paper companies be in complete ownership or control of many forests ,,, and we let them continue. The less new paper that we use, the less reforestation they do. And we all know what follows deforestation. (Yes my fellow Americans, we have some national forests.but ,,, we're not gonna talk about those being dominated by cattlemen running cattle at pennies per acre)
I grew up in a very environmentally aware family & went to an environmentalist college in the early '70s. I even interned at the President's Advisory Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency in DC while in college. So I recycle.and re-use and still recall the 1st time our country grocery had those F,,,,,,,g plastic bags for fruit & veg I was about 14 & did half the cooking & shopping for our large family. Mama & I just looked at each other & simultaneously said "why?" If we could shop sometimes for meals for 200 without those things, I fail to understand why families of 1 to 6 can't get by without them.
I'm from oil & gas country on the coast. All we know for sure is that the 2 kids who drank well water from conception into college are the 2 kids with massive lung & other massive health issues. We were less than a mile from a petroleum refinery. You couldn't taste it in the water but because the soil was 90% sand I'm told it was a bigger factor in our lifelong problems.
I just got back from a trip into fracking (& the even sadder fracked-out) country. Give me paper every day except when it comes to cups! I do carry tons of water, especially in that territory because of sulphurous water, but wherever I'm residing indoors, I want to drink out of a glass or cup and not our adult sippy cups. But that's just me and my gentle opinions ;-)
Did you know that before we're 5 (maybe it's much earlier) we lose the ability to suck liquids into our stomachs without gastrointestinal repercussions, specifically vast extra amounts of gas from all the air we suck in, and the ensuing heartburn & constipation?
Hmm ,,, from the American Director of the Departments of Pedantry & U. I.