Reduce your waste in business

Paper

All businesses use paper and for some it will be one of the biggest expenses.

By making smarter use of paper you could save your business time and money. Follow the links below for advice on reducing, reusing and recycling paper at work.

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

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Reduce

Maintain your copier

  • Keep copiers and printers in good repair and make it your company’s policy to only buy copiers and printers that make reliable double-sided copies.
  • Let your copier maintenance person know when a copier is performing poorly (toner is low, jams frequently etc.). Often copiers are used until all the toner is gone and that wears them down. A copier that works well is less likely to jam and this helps save paper!

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Set computer defaults

  • Set defaults to double sided. Select one-sided printing only when really needed.
  • If your printer cannot print double-sided, find out whether it can be fitted with a duplexing unit. Make “rethink” messages appear on screen when a print command is given.

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Put more text on a page

  • Use the “Print Preview” feature to make sure the document prints on just one page. You may also want to change the paper orientation (portrait vs. landscape) to get more on a page.
  • In MS Word and Excel, go to “File”, then to “Page Setup”. Then choose “Reduce the Margins” and set your margins to smaller numbers. Compared to the normal settings, you could use up to 14% less paper!
  • Use the “Fit to Page” feature in Microsoft Excel. This feature automatically re-scales output to print evenly on one or several pages.
  • When you are printing, reduce the font size to 10 point to decrease the amount of paper required.
  • In PowerPoint, print “Handouts” not “Slides”.

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Use your IT system effectively

  • Use emails to share information. Emails could replace memos, faxes, letters or invitations to meetings. By setting up contact groups you can send out information to a target audience with little effort.
  • Send out e-news or e-bulletins to your stakeholders and staff.
  • Send press releases by email.
  • Email invoices.
  • Create pdf documents for distribution to avoid printing out text that you do not want to be edited.
  • Transport data using a memory stick rather than printing out large documents.
  • Make use of the track changes feature in Microsoft Office so you can see changes to documents over time. Practice good document management by labelling versions so there is less confusion.
  • Have shared electronic storage to help prevent people printing out multiple copies so they have access to key documents. This will save paper as well as storage solutions and office space.
  • Use electronic data interchange (EDI) technologies, like web-based secure credit card transfers and order forms, to reduce the need for cumbersome paper invoices, transaction records and confirmation letters.

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Reduce the size of images

Being able to reduce or enlarge images is common on copiers. Image reduction is also possible with printing.

For example, when copying a book, one can often get two original pages on to one side of the copied sheet. Because reduction works in two dimensions, you only need to reduce by 30% (to 70%) to cut the area of an image in half.

While reproducing entire standard pages requires a 35% reduction (to 65%), books often have smaller than standard pages and most documents have larger than necessary margins, so the reduction can usually be less than this.

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Use your fax efficiently

  • Send a fax or Word document without printing first! Simply use the menus in Word: choose “File”, then “Send to”, then “Fax Recipient”, and then follow the instructions. This allows faxes to be sent from computers without the need to print first. It also allows faxes to be received in an e-mail rather than printed copy format.
  • When sending a paper fax, get rid of cover sheets and use fax stick-on labels instead.

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Change your paper

Heavier weight sheets use more fibre, cost more per sheet and cost more to post. Most printers work well with 70gsm and 80gsm. Using thinner paper does not change the performance and can save you money too.

Paper with a basis weight of:

  • 60gsm uses and costs 20% more than 50gsm;
  • 70gsm uses and costs 15% more than 60gsm;
  • 80gsm uses and costs 12% more than 70gsm; and
  • 100gsm uses and costs 20% more than 80gsm.

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Conduct paper-less meetings

  • When you hold a meeting, do you really need to have hard copies of preparatory materials available for each participant?
  • Encourage people to use their computers for reviewing documents and note-taking.
  • Make sure meeting participants have electronic access to all the materials beforehand. Encourage those using computers not to print out copies. If you must supply additional materials at the meeting, consider burning CDs for all participants.

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Reduce print runs

  • Conduct an inventory to identify past printing jobs where too many copies were ordered to ensure you are more accurate in future.
  • Create a checklist for departments that order informational materials, including questions such as:
    • How many required recipients and back-up copies are needed.
    • Are you sure these target groups will need a hard copy of the report or is it enough to point them to a website?
    • Do they need to be proactively sent the hard copy or is it sufficient to make it available on request?
    • Do you need in-house copies for all staff or can copies be held in communal areas or on notice boards?
    • How many reserve copies do you require and why? For what events or purposes?
    • Who will distribute or oversee the distribution of the reserve copies?

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Review distribution lists

  • Remove outdated or unnecessary recipients.
  • See if destinations with many recipients can make do with fewer copies.

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Reuse

Encourage staff to reuse

  • Use the blank sides of unneeded single-sided copies for printing drafts.
  • Use outdated letterhead for in-house memos.
  • Designate a printer for draft printing, and use only used paper in its paper tray.
  • Encourage reuse of envelopes and buy recyclable labels with the office address and logo to place over addresses on reused envelopes.
  • Create pads from used paper and distribute them to all employees.

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Recycle

Put adequate paper collection systems in place

  • Provide clearly labelled recycling bins near copiers, shipping and receiving areas, and in employee eating areas to collect white paper, mixed paper, newspaper, magazines, cardboard as well as non-paper products such as glass, aluminium and plastic.
  • Provide desktop recycling containers for employees.
  • Advise cleaning staff on where to place collected paper.
  • Estimate how much waste paper your office produces and arrange to have it picked up by your waste collection company.
  • If your office is small, consider combining your recyclables with other small offices nearby.

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Buy recycled

  • Choose paper with recycled content.

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