7 Green Printing Tips | Easy Ways to Go Green Today

green-printing-tips

Did you know that the average office worker generates about 2 pounds of paper waste every day? A lot of this paper waste comes from printing. However, you can implement quick wins to save energy and help the environment.

Here are 7 easy green printing tips that everyone should use to go green today! Also, check out the special discount for our readers below!

$$ SALE - Save 44% on Office Supplies! $$

Do you want to save money on office supplies? Take advantage of the sale going on now!

Save 44% on select home office products on Amazon. Limited time offer.

7 Green Printing Tips – Easy Ways to Go Green Today

1. Use Recycled Printing Paper

Putting recycled paper in your printers is an easy green printing tip. You and your colleagues won't even notice the difference!

For instance, the recycled printing paper below looks and feels like regular printer paper. However, it is made of recycled food and beverage containers!

Printworks 100% Recycled Paper - Green Printing Tips

2. Print Double-Sided

Make sure your computer and printer are automatically set to print double-sided. According to the EPA, printing double-sided can reduce your paper waste by 10 - 40%.

Green Printing Tips - Double-Sided Printing

Learn how to set up double-sided printing in less than 3 minutes here.

3. Incorporate "Follow-Me" Printing

Follow-me printing, also known as “pull-printing”, sends each print job to a server and the documents print when the user scans a badge or inputs an access code at the printer. The user must request the documents at the printer instead of them printing automatically.

A lot of documents are left in the printer tray and never retrieved. Follow-me printing helps reduce waste, save money, and protect sensitive documents.

4. Use Smart Plugs

Smart plugs automatically shut off power to your printer, so it doesn’t draw electricity when not in use. They are low-cost, easy to use, and will save you money and help the environment automatically! 

Smart Wi-Fi Plug - Green Printing Tips

5. Invest in an Eco-Friendly Printer

Investing in an eco-friendly printer is the ultimate green printing tip.

Epson EcoTank printers are cartridge-free and better for the environment. You can also buy high-quality refurbished printers that are in excellent condition and fully functional. 

Epson EcoTank Printer - Green Printing Tips

6. Share and Review Documents Electronically Whenever Possible

Share materials electronically whenever possible via email, Dropbox, etc. When signing documents, use apps such as Adobe Fill & Sign or Docusign.

7. Consider Adding an Eco-Friendly Message to Your Email Signature

A lot of people add “Please consider the environment before printing this email” to their email signature. There is some debate on how helpful this step is. Some say it is an easy step that gets people thinking about the environment. Others say it is an outdated practice that is often irrelevant or ignored by the reader.

How to Incorporate Sustainable Printing Policies

The easiest way to incorporate green printing tips and sustainable printing policies is to make small changes that people will hardly notice. Using recycled printing paper and Smart Plugs are quick wins you can implement today!

3 Additional Ways to Reduce Paper Waste

1. Use Paperless Notebooks

Use paperless notebooks to take notes. Our readers love the Rocketbook Notebook. It looks and feels like a regular notebook but is a paperless environmentally friendly alternative! It is the most popular ecofriendly notebook and has tons of positive reviews on Amazon.

Green Printing Tips - Rocketbook Notebooks

2. Recycled Notebooks

Notebooks made from recycled materials are also a good way to save paper. There are tons of high-quality, environmentally friendly options.

3. Recycled Post-it Notes

Finally, use Post-it notes made from recycled paper! America’s favorite sticky notes come in a variety of colors and will help you reduce paper waste.

About the Author Staff Writer

Our writers come from all over the world, but one thing unites them - their passion for sustainability.

Leave a Comment:

4 comments
syed says October 31, 2014

Thanks for sharing this important information with us on green printing…
the tips and advices to curb the environmental impacts associated with printing has been beneficial for all of us..
I was not aware with all these….it was most useful indeed!!!!

Reply
Tracey Rawling Church says January 7, 2015

Thank you – some great advice here. Some other tips are:
– print internal documents n-up (e.g. 2 pages to a sheet)
– always use “print preview” feature and proofread text before printing, to avoid having to reprint because of layout or typing errors (this is especially important for spreadsheets where a single sheet can become 4 pages if the layout is incorrect!)
– if when you preview a document a small portion runs onto another page, consider changing the font size or margins so it fits on fewer pages.
– avoid the need to use pre-printed stationery that may have to be disposed of if any small detail changes by setting up templates in your applications so that letterhead and other standard document types can be printed at the same time as the body copy

Pull-printing is a great solution for avoiding wasted prints but also has some additional benefits – it helps to reduce resistance from moving to many desktop printers to a few shared ones on the basis of confidentiality, as there’s no risk your documents will be left on the printer for everybody to see. And because you tend to collect all your print jobs at once rather than sending them to print ad hoc, the printer only has to wake up and warm up once to print the batch, which uses less energy than multiple wake-ups.

Reply
Caroline says September 8, 2015

Great tips, I have been exclusively purchasing recycled paper for my office for a while now. I also always print 2-sided where I can as its saves on overall paper consumption.

Reply
Roberto says November 14, 2017

Some printers admits an ‘eco mode’ witch reduces the quality of prints but saves tonner. Surelly that is enough for drafs where you do not need professional quality. Probably you can turn this on by default (as well as the double-side printing), and turn it off manually when really need.

Reply
Add Your Reply