When Destiny’s Child released their immortal song Bills, Bills, Bills it was long before the modern-day blossom of environmental movements and Greta Thunberg. Back then, all bills were printed on paper, put in an envelope and sent by mail.
Thankfully, modern-day companies are a little more environmentally aware and make a conscious effort to reduce paper waste. This means that more of your bills are starting to find their way to you via alternative means such as emails or texts.
Punch Clocks
Punching holes through a paper card sounds like such an antique technology it might as well have been used by cavepeople. The truth is that it was actually in use in our lifetime. Bosses and employers are always going to want to keep track of their employees’ work hours, but that doesn’t mean they use punch clocks to do it.
Many workplaces these days simply use a magnetic card, a fingerprint scan or an attendance app to keep things in check. And hey, if it means humanity uses a little less paper – we’re all for it.
Corded Headphones
Bluetooth technology has slowly been changing many aspects of our lives. Such a major aspect is the way we listen to music. Connecting our phones to portable speakers has been fairly common in modern-day parties. But the change is also happening individually with wireless headphones and earphones.
Being the tech leader that it is, Apple sentenced wired headphones to death when it came out with Airpods. The company’s new mobile devices don’t even have headphone ports. Other tech companies soon followed suit, and people were happy to adapt this change and be free from constantly untangling their headphones.
Printed Books
Book lovers might deny this one, but it doesn’t mean it’s not coming. Many would agree that there is nothing quite like the smell of a new book or getting lost in a second-hand bookstore. However, digital reading devices such as Kindles are increasingly taking over.
Sure, exploring the bookshelves at the library is a lot of fun, but so it is having countless books within reach on one small gadget. Digital books are also not as romantic as paper ones, but reducing the use of paper altogether just might be worth it.
Checkbooks
Checkbooks are becoming extinct, and that’s probably because they are money-related paper products. With the use of paper going out the window and easy-to-use payment apps, check books simply have no business in this world anymore.
Stores and other businesses often have a “no checks” sign by the counter. It looks like they figured out that this payment method is too much of a hassle to deal with. So there really is no reason for you to hold on to that little checkbook you have lying in the drawer of your bedside table.