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Posted by: Kerry Philpot on 6/27/03 Title: Paper waste
Postnum: 175 EntryID:871
I am trying to encourage our office to use less paper. Right now we use approximately 40,000 sheets of paper a month and I am trying to convert this figure to the number of trees it takes to produce this. Can anybody help?

Responses

Posted by: Enviro Girl on 7/8/03 Title: Re: Paper waste
Postnum: 175 EntryID:876
I would e-mail a paper mill if you want the number of trees, however I think another approach would be to focus on the cost of the paper, and what it is being used for. Is it necessary to use all that paper (like are you a publishing house?), or is it e-mail jokes being printed out? One suggestion that I have would be to purchase (if you don't already have) a double-sided printer - these save alot of paper. They flip the paper over and print on both sides so you don't have to worry about re-feeding the paper in, having it in the right order etc. If you let us know why you go through so much paper, you will likely get much more suggestions.

Posted by: Kerry Philpot on 7/11/03 Title: Re: Paper waste
Postnum: 175 EntryID:887
No, we are an engineering company that needs to seriously be rethinking our use of hard copy material. We do have a double sided printer which is starting to be used more but it is just a retraining process with people. Unfortunately most lasers do not treat used paper very friendly and the jams are more hassle than they are worth. I am trying to encourage anyone with a laserjet to use used paper as they seem more compatible with it.

Thanks for your help.

Posted by: Alison on 7/16/03 Title: Re: Paper waste
Postnum: 175 EntryID:894
Hi Kerry,

Paper use is usually measured in a dollar value rather than by the amount of trees used. By stating a dollar value, the bottom line is hit.This amount of paper must definetly be hitting your profit margin. Use economics to get management to help in sponsoring your paper save ideas. Save paper = save money. Several ideas that have worked in our office (also an engineering firm: - reuse one sided paper for printing of emails, memos, all in house printing - purchasing a double sided printer that controls the flipping of the paper (most printers have a double sided function if you are trying to save money) - using one sided paper for messages, notepads etc... - before printing select the option to print several pages on one sheet (2 per sheet is ideal for reading any more and it is too small)and by adding this feature to the double sided we have saved a lot of paper - the other option is to track the number of pages being printed for each project by each person (this will give you an idea of for what and whom is printing). Leaving a tally sheet by the printer, and marking it off as you pick it up. - also by tracking it this way, charge the project for the use of all the paper if a lot of printing is required

Hope these help.

Posted by: Mike Johnston on 7/23/03 Title: Re: Paper waste
Postnum: 175 EntryID:901
We are in the middle of a pilot project that requires a code to be entered at the copier prior to any copies being made. Each department/person has a code. At the end of the month the operating cost of the copier is billed to the departments as indicated by the percentage of the copies made by each code. The initial results have been a 28% reduction in copies made in the second month, (the first month's bill was an eye opener for some departments!!). We are going to run the pilot for 6 months and then evaluate it for use at our other sites.

Mike J.

Posted by: Mark Proulx on 7/28/03 Title: Re: Paper waste
Postnum: 175 EntryID:906
I had undertaken a similar project and my research indicated that the average tree used for paper production yielded approx. 80,000 normal sized sheets or paper of normal quality.


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