Dan Howells, Director of Climate Campaigns for Green America
From stacks of documents, newspapers, magazines to packaging materials and supplies – paper accounts for approximately 26% of total waste at landfills in the United States. It’s a stark reminder that we need to rethink our consumption and disposal of paper products. But did you know there’s a much larger paper trail behind the scenes, one that most of us aren’t even aware of, that is a major contributor to climate change?
Our healthcare system uses a surprising amount of paper that harms the environment, pollutes communities, contributes to deforestation, and exacerbates climate change.
The Prescription Problem
Every year, billions of prescriptions are written in the United States. Accompanying each one are enormous paper pamphlets, averaging 30 to 45 pages in length, meant for healthcare professionals (HCPs), not patients. These pamphlets, sometimes stretching the length of a dining-room table, take 8-12 months to produce and ship, meaning they are often outdated by the time they arrive.
It's called prescribing information, and it contains complex information about the chemical composition of drugs. That prescribing information is required by law to be printed and shipped with every prescription filled in the U.S.
The numbers are staggering: In 2019, approximately 3.79 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the U.S., and by 2023, that number had jumped to 6.7 billion. At 30 to 45 pages of paper per prescription, that amounts to billions of wasted sheets every year. Because that printed information is outdated and difficult for pharmacists to read, the paper that is often thrown away, contributing to an enormous amount of waste.
This is happening in a world that’s becoming increasingly digital—where telemedicine, electronic records, and e-prescriptions are rapidly becoming the norm. So, why is this still happening?
The simple answer: Congress has stood in the way.
A Missed Opportunity for Change
A decade ago, the FDA proposed a rule that could have significantly reduced the environmental impact of paper prescriptions. The proposal suggested moving the prescribing information for healthcare professionals into a digital format—something that would have saved millions of trees, reduced paper waste, cut down on carbon emissions, and increased safety for patients. That’s because the 8–12-month delay on printed information arriving at pharmacies means that healthcare professionals could mistakenly use outdated or incorrect information—and it is part of the reason why pharmacists already opt for digital information, tossing the printed booklets in the trash.
But despite the clear environmental and safety benefits, Congress has blocked this rule change, and the environmental consequences are stacking up.
In fact, the Environmental Paper Network’s Paper Calculator™ estimates that if we switched to online prescribing information, we could save more than 1.8 million tons of wood (that’s the equivalent of 10 million trees), nearly 11 billion gallons of water, and reduce 8.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. That amount of reduced paper production would have real, tangible changes on our fight against climate change.
Why Now?
It has been 10 years since the FDA’s proposal, and it is more urgent than ever to address this enormous amount of paper waste. The longer we delay this transition, the more paper waste we continue to generate, exacerbating the very issues we’re trying to solve.
Paper is a necessary part of life, but we need to be responsible about how we use it. Given the overwhelming support from medical professionals for a shift to digital, and the clear environmental benefits of doing so, it’s time to demand action. It’s time to end the outdated federal regulations that are keeping us stuck in a paper-based system.
The transition to digital prescribing isn’t just a matter of convenience—it’s a crucial step in reducing the healthcare system’s carbon footprint and helping us take meaningful action in the fight against climate change.
