Our Love Affair With Printing

We love to print. We print recipes, we print documents, we print papers for college projects, we print cards and well, we simply love to print! In spite of our obsession with printing things, many of us also share the desire to be more earth-conscious and reduce our carbon footprint. 

Recent statistics show that the international paper production industry has a carbon footprint around three times that of the aviation industry! Does that surprise you? 

ForestEthics.org shares these facts:

• North Americans consume more paper per capita – upwards of 500 lbs. annually – than anyone else on earth.
• Paper production is the third most energy-intensive of all manufacturing industries, using over 12% of all energy in the industrial sector.
• Paper represents one of the biggest components of solid waste in landfills. Statistics showed that in 2009, paper represented 26 million tons or 16% of landfill solid waste. (More recent studies show up to 35 percent of the weight of solid waste is made up of paper)

Here are a five easy ways to reduce your paper consumption when printing:

1. Think before you print. Do you really need to print that email or other document?
2. Reduce margins and font size. Compared to normal settings, you could use up to 14% less paper! Avoid double spacing, large margins and white space.
3. Review your document before printing. If you’re creating a formal document or preparing for a meeting, double check your spelling, formatting and more to eliminate the need for a second round of printing. Use the Print Preview setting to catch any errors before printing your documents.
4. Print on both sides of the paper! Use one-sided printing only when absolutely necessary.
5. Shrink to fit! Using your printer’s settings, shrink your document to print all on one page when possible. There is no good reason to fit a few lines of text on a second page when one will do the job.

When you’re done with everything you’ve printed, recycle it! The EPA states that there is a reduction in air and water pollution when paper products are recycled vs. the manufacture of new paper. Water pollution is lessened by 35 percent and air pollution is lessened by 74 percent. Though these are small steps, one person can really make an impact!