Is this the end of the paper? Technological advances and their potential impacts on the consumption of paper

Abstract

The supply and use of information technology have changed the profile of individuals worldwide. The analysis of the profile of Brazilian citizens indicates that the supply of information technology and the profile of the population changed in recent decades, separately or together. By obtaining an index such as, education, access to mobile telephony and computers with internet access, we can perceive changes in the habits of Brazil in recent years. With the increasing technological advances such as the emergence of tablet-PCs, e-paper, smartphones, digital cameras, among others, there is a growing expectation of a decrease in paper consumption. On the other hand, greater access to information - with internet available in several locations at low cost - and technologies such as printers increasingly affordable prices, tends to increase the volume of impressions, as well as the consumption of equipment increases the consumption of packaging based on paper. This study drew statistical studies between the increased use of information technology and paper consumption in the Brazilian market, using data for twenty years - from 1990 to 2009 - Bracelpa (Associação Brasileira de Celulose e Papel) and the Annual Survey of Management Resources for Informatics at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas – Escola de Administração do Estado de São Paulo (FGV-EAESP). Through the literature review on the topic and statistical tests, it was investigated whether corporate investments in information technology provided to reduce the consumption of certain types of papers in Brazilian marketplace. To answer the hypotheses, we performed a correlation between the development of paper consumption, according to the types (newsprint, printing and writing), and investments in information technology, according to the sectors (services, industry and trade). The results corroborate the earlier study, developed by Moraes Meirelles and Nacimiento (2010), which was analyzed in a period of six years, indicating that the use of IT did not bring benefit to the reduction of paper consumption in the Brazilian market, considering the types of roles impacted by this use. It is evident through this study that the values of IT investments by companies participating in this research had positive correlation with the fall in consumption of newsprint and writing paper type, indicating that, possibly, access to digital information through reduced the use of newspapers for circulation of news. It is also evident in the increased consumption of other types of paper such as newsprint and packaging, consumption increased along with IT investments, thus we can deduce that the easy access to computer equipment, including printers would lead to the printing of electronic files, unnecessarily, as well as increased sales of electronic equipment tends to increase the use of paper packaging.