Let me start this with a personal confession; I haven't used printed users' manuals in years. They still come with almost each product I buy and go straight into the recycling.

Happily it turns out that Internet users can opt out of getting hard copies of users manuals (for example go to the Techno Station – a portal that is amassing all users manuals at one place.

All the environmental chatter is saying that doing searches can help save the environment. Surely the best thing all manufacturers and industrialists could do right now is to drastically slash the number of manuals printed on paper by asking exactly who requires them. My guess is that it would be very small number of the households who would still want users’ manuals in hard copies.

Statistics show that paper consumption has trebled during the last three decades, and given the present rate of growth, it is likely to double by 2010 that is a big cause of concerns because it is linked with seismic environmental problems, from deforestation through industrial pollution to waste. Given my interest in fast degrading earth environment, I recommend that we all should reduce the use of words printed on papers. We can resort to reading online. Every bit can make a difference.

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1. Small things Make a Big Difference
2. Learning through Manuals
3. Authentic Manuals
4. Technologies Making a Difference
5. Consumer’s Behavior