Reducing paper waste.

There are a number of alternatives to reducing the amount of paper and printing you do in your office.

It’s not just about re-using paper i.e. printing on the other side or considering a recycled alternative, what happens when you throw away piles of paper no longer needed? Yes, you can use a secure shredding company but that all adds to the costs of managing your paper-flow.

It’s quite likely you are thinking that your office doesn’t print more than is necessary but you would be surprised especially when you start to analyse just when, where, how often paper is being used and what the re-ordering frequency is?

How often do you print an email, what about when you source information off the web and you end up by printing the banner pages; half a dozen or so you didn’t need just to get the one page you really want to keep?

Here are some ideas you can easily implement without too much thought:

Duplex (double-sided) printing get more out of each of the pages you print, print the odd pages first by setting your printer and then print the even pages thus reducing the number of sheets you use; particularly useful for when you want to print notes.

Print in a smaller font/typeface – as long as you can still read it you will fit more content onto the sheet.

Check before you print – using the print preview button ensures you can see what you are going to print and change the margins or scaling in the document if you end up with a page with only two lines of text.

Print only the pages you need – using the print preview button allows you to print the pages you want to print and in the print dialog box you can enter the page ranges required.

You can also adjust your page settings by simply reducing the header and footer  and left/right margins enabling you to fit more content onto the page; which will equate to fewer pages printed.

Print multiple pages onto a single sheet of paper using font size 12 which tends to be the default for many people the document is still legible.

Finally, you can significantly reduce the paper-flow in your organisation by working with a print management partner who will provide a print audit and seek to reduce paper and print costs for you which can only mean greater savings and a reduction in your paper mountain!

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