Greener Now advice on eco-friendly printing
Printers have been an essential product in the workplace for years but now with the invention of paperless offices they may be becoming a thing of the past. If your office isn’t a paperless one yet why not take in to account the following advice on how to be green with your printers.
Before you print, ask yourself if you really need a printed copy, whenever possible, try and communicate by email instead.
Choose a printer that can print double sided and consider installing a third paper bin for networked printers so that you can print drafts and internal documents on paper that is already printed on one side.
For small-volume printers that don't have the ability to print double sided, make sure odd and even pages can be printed easily.
Throwing away your spent inkjet and laser cartridges is like scrapping your car when it runs out of petrol. 250 million printer cartridges have been dumped in landfill sites in the last decade.
Go Greener Now and refill them yourself, or buy remanufactured ones, this is much better for the environment and also saves you money!
For those documents you do need to print, here are some Greener Now tips:
- Turn off the printer when you're not using it and at the end of the working day (make sure no-one else wants to use it first, particularly if it's part of a network)
- Set sleep mode default times to the lowest available setting that is convenient for your needs
- Print double-sided whenever you can
- Use black ink instead of printing off in colour to save the environment and your company profits
- Use the Print Preview function to check layout and style instead of printing
- Adjust your margins and type size to fit more on the page
- Use paper with the highest recycled content the manufacturer or supplier recommends for your printer
- Use ink and toner saving settings
- Recycle or refill toner and ink cartridges.
Laser printers use similar technology to photocopiers, so their energy consumption is similar to that of small photocopiers. Inkjet or modern dot matrix printers can provide very high print quality but they are slower than laser printers.
Whilst inkjet printers are often cheaper than laser printers, the cost of buying new ink cartridges may make them more expensive in the long run. You can cut down the cost and their environmental impact by refilling the inkjet cartridges-either through commercial refillers or do-it-yourself kits.
Cartridges can often be refilled four or five times while maintaining acceptable print quality.
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