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5 Tips to Reduce Paper Waste

Office paper represents roughly 50% of the waste bill from the average business – US offices print about 12.1 trillion sheets of paper annually, contributing about 9% of carbon dioxide emissions.

Here are 5 tips to reduce paper waste:

  1. Use Smart Eco-Friendly Font. Your ink cartridges last longer if your fonts required less ink to print. The new Ecofont allows you print less with small circles removed from the style, which isn’t visible when the text size is used at the size 12 or size 10.
  2. Print Double-Sided. Double-sided printing will cut paper use in half AND save money.
  3. Edit, Read, and Write Online. Try editing documents, reading newspapers & magazines online, and sending messages online to cut paper waste.
  4. Promote Reuse. If you can’t print double-sided, use the other side as scrap paper. And when you’re finished using both sides…
  5. Recycle! Make sure to recycle paper AND printer cartridges! Find local retailers who recycle cartridges, and make sure your business is recycling paper. Increase awareness by placing marked bins for employees.

Posted by Julie

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher

3 thoughts on “5 Tips to Reduce Paper Waste

  1. Thanks Julie! I work in a large hospital and a few years ago the supplied EVERY person with a small recycle bin to keep near our desks for paper. It’s great! Now, everyone in my department recycles, and we “yell” at each other if someone accidentally throws paper in the regular trash.

  2. Hi Julie & Beth,

    I’m the Office Manager for a small company located in an Industrial Park. As a lease tenant we must take care of our own trash hauling so the recycling issue is left to us to be compliant with the township laws.
    I purchased all our office employees a “signature blue” recycling can to keep by their desk and one for the community kitchen.. You can get them for about $5.00 each.
    As Nicole said about the hospital workers, we too have become our own recycling police.
    We lease a recycling bin for $30.00 month, as well as a seperate trash bin and everyone makes sure the leftover week old doughnuts go in the correct container for hauling.
    It’s a definite added expense to the company, but we save with “in-house” housekeeping and promote a sense of responsibility in the work place.

    Good work ladies!

  3. Great to hear about the recycling initiatives, ladies! i agree though, it’s hard to get everyone on board with recycling, even if there’s plenty of recycle bins to go around. Sometimes a gentle reminder of what you can (and can’t ) recycle is helpful!

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