How to waste less paper in your home office
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While it is unrealistic to assume that the modern business world would ever go 100% paperless, it is time to rethink the connection between the printing industry and sustainability.
Sadly, in our daily lives, we all use printed materials such as newspapers, books or even business cards, and it is hard to imagine we will stop consuming paper products any time soon.
We run a small business from home, here at Zero Waste towers, and although we try to be as paperless as possible, we do still use an awful lot of it.
Here are some of the ways we keep our paper footprint as low as we can:
Paper Sourcing
With numerous green options available on the market, it has never been easier to purchase recycled printing paper.
Instead of buying products that were made out of newly sourced raw materials, it is much better to invest in slightly more expensive yet more eco-friendly options. This also sends back a message to manufacturers that there is demand to close the loop.
Non-Toxic Vegetable and Soy Ink
Originally, ink is produced from petroleum and considered to be toxic. Some inks contain heavy metals, non-renewable oils, and volatile organic compounds. That’s a good enough reason to switch to soy ink.
Although soy ink dries slower than other types of ink, it is more environmentally-friendly and better for you to be around too.
Energy Efficient Machines
Another way to make printing sustainable is using the most energy efficient machines and appliances available. Ours is set to go to sleep unless being used for printing.
Duplex printing
One of the simplest ways to save paper is to print on both sides where possible. If you’re not sure how to do that, here is how to print double sided using Word.
Wherever I am forced to print one sided I then use the back of that paper for writing my To Do lists, instead of buying notebooks or using fresh paper.
If you find yourself inundated with scrap confidential paper, here are 7 ways to reuse and recycle shredded paper.
Get Rid of Wasteful Production Practices
Before printing something out or using a printer, ask yourself if you really need it to be printed. Most of the time, a digital version is just as good as a printed one.
If you absolutely need to print something, embrace modern technology such as Web2Print. The printing services Zenprint uses this software to bundle multiple orders from different customers on one sheet of paper to make printing more resource efficient. Using this approach, the company manages to save a tremendous amount of paper.
What have I missed? How do you use less paper in your home office?
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One thing I do is actually take home ‘waste’ paper to use in the home – paper that is printed out can easily be used again in the home and then we recycle there. Thanks for the post!