Reduce Printing: Save Paper and Toner

The average office worker goes through 10,000 pages of paper per year. Make printing a conscious decision, not a default behavior. For the times when printing is necessary, talk to your Local Support Provider about changing your default settings to make printing more efficient, and of course, when you're finished with something, make sure it goes in the recycling bin instead of the trash.

Change your printing habits to use less paper and less ink

• Print as little as possible. Edit documents on screen rather than printing them out.

• Distribute documents electronically. Post information as web pages, wikis, blogs, email, or PDFs rather than making paper copies.

• Remove unwanted elements before printing from your web browser. See this document on minimizing waste when printing.

• Reduce font size and margin size to reduce paper usage.

• Print on both sides of the page whenever possible and appropriate.

• Set your printer to draft/ink-saving mode when you don't require high-quality printing.

• Use Ecofont to save ink. Consider using the free font from Spranq for draft and every day work which must be printed. Ecofont is designed to use 20% less ink than typical fonts. The letters are perforated with small holes to save ink.

• Print in black-and-white when color is not required.

Reuse and recycle paper and toner

• Use recycled paper. Departments should switch to office paper with a minimum of 35% post-consumer content. Paper with higher post-consumer content (available up to 100%) is preferable. Information on purchasing this and other green products is available from Penn Purchasing.

• Save discarded paper to be used as scrap paper. Print on the back side of scrap paper when possible or cut it into smaller pieces for convenience and maximum efficiency.

• Place well-marked paper recycling bins near printers, copiers, and doors to raise awareness of recycling and to make it as easy as possible for all involved.

• Recycle depleted toner cartridges. Many companies include a free return-shipping label to send the used cartridges back to the vendor for recycling. Penn's Computer Connection will also take used inkjet cartridges and will make sure they are recycled for you. In addition, and recommended for all institutional cartridges, Penn's Purchasing Services has partnered with Telrose Corporation and Office Depot to provide a cartridge recycling program. Your Telrose Corporation delivery person will pick-up used cartridges from your office, palletize them, and ship them in bulk to the recycler. See the Purchasing Web Site for more details.