Green Printer Blog

Dispatch from greenprinteronline.com.

Check this: more than 30% of all the trees that are logged go to make paper. That’s a lot of energy to kill all our poor, little green friends: in fact, deforestation contributes between 20% and 25% of all carbon pollution, which, in turn, accelerates global warming. And yes, we’ve heard it before: recycle, recycle, recycle. But does it work? Yes, but…. according to the RFU, most of us still don’t do it as much as we’d like to.

In Canada, we recovered only 44% of all paper products used and over 90% of all office paper is still made from virgin fibres. Ouch, that hurts the feelings of treehuggers like us. Here are seven, easy office tips to save trees and cut down carbon emissions:

1. It’s what your mother always told you: Frugal is the new chic. When making copies, set your machine to use both sides of paper and cut your consumption by 50%.

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1. A recycling bin beneath everyone’s desk. Hide a paper recycling receptacle next to every printer, copier and fax machine so that your work crew can get rid of unwanted paper in them. We are creatures of comfort and leisure: it’s easier to lean down than walk across the hall, non?
2. Print in carbon lite mode: To save even more ink, print in draft mode. It will usually lighten the shade, but you’ll still be able to read your copy clearly.
3. Cut the junk: Remove your office mailing address from the junk mass mailer’s list - if everyone in Canada did, we would cut emissions the equivalent of removing three million cards off the road. That’s huge.
4. Consider alternative paper: Think about buying treeless paper.
5. Buy recycled toner and ink: Cartridges contribute metal and plastic to landfills, but buying toner and ink that’s refilled can help alleviate this environmental burden.
6. Don’t forget the office loo: Toilet paper is often made from virgin fiber and up to 424,000 trees would be spared by replacing a 500-sheet roll of virgin fiber toilet paper.

Green Printer (GP) is the only environmental printing company in North America that sells brochures and other paper products in runs as low as 10 (instead of 1000) in order to save trees and meet your organization’s unique printing needs. And, GP works closely with and buys from paper mills that run on clean energy and use offsets. What’s more, GP is not shy to tell you to print less in order to save trees – and the planet. We’ve also got a funky Eco Calculator.