Expert Tips: Reduce Paper Wastage

Let’s be honest. Do we really think twice before printing that document, despite what it says next to the little green tree on our email signature? Perhaps some of us do. But more often than not, it’s just easier to hit ‘print’, and get on with our business.

Realistically, in most cases, printing is quite necessary. However, wastage certainly is not. How could you eliminate the stacks of discarded pages left at the output tray of your printer each day? How could you ensure that all internal documents are printed double-sided? Or that emails aren’t printed along with unnecessary previous exchanges?

Forget higher moral causes, the cost of paper alone is enough to convince anyone that wasting is wrong. Now you can put into place solutions to reduce the amount of wasted print in your company without inconveniencing the user at all. We could even calculate how many trees you've saved each year.

1. Adjust print driver default settings to become more eco and budget-friendly. Choose duplex printing as your "default" mode as using both sides of a page is the best way to reduce paper use. Adjust settings for specific applications, such as always printing emails in black-and-white. Xerox drivers offer the unique ability to customize print settings for each application, allowing you to automatically apply these custom settings each time you print.
   
   
2. Think before you print. Use the Print Preview feature to avoid printing unwanted pages. Better yet, use GreenPrint™ software that automatically finds pages with typical waste characteristics, such as pages with just a URL, banner ad, logo or legal jargon, and asks if you want to print them. The Green Print Software is available for free download for the following printers, or licences can be purchased for other printers:
   - Phaser 8560
   - Phaser 8860
   - Phaser 8560MFP
   - Phaser 8860MFP
   - ColorQube 8570
   - ColorQube 8870
   - ColorQube 9201/9202/9203
   - ColorQube 9301/9302/9303
   
   
3. Use recycled paper and recycle used paper. Recycling paper fiber saves trees, energy, water and chemicals. Keep a recycling box at each desk to make it easy to collect used paper. And choose environmentally preferable papers such as recycled content papers, and papers certified to sustainable forest management standards (FSC or SFI).
   
   
4. Use scanning to enable digital workflows. Xerox multifunction printers can be your on-ramp for turning paper files into electronic ones. Scanning documents makes them easy to archive, share, email and retrieve. This saves time spent searching for information, and saves money by reducing paper document warehousing or storage costs. To have a look at some of our document solutions click here. You can even make use of the new Xerox Mobile Scanner so your workforce can scan and distribute files from the road. Call us for more information.
   
   
5. Implement ‘Pull-printing’ which holds jobs at the device until a user enters a PIN or swipes a card to claim them. This prevents stacks of forgotten prints from piling up at the device. For example, we recently saved medium sized company 36,000 sheets of paper only by preventing paper accumulation at the output tray. Pull-printing solutions also prevent unauthorized viewing of sensitive documents—a necessity in many legal, health care and financial organizations.
   
   
6. Distribute documents electronically instead of in hard copy when feasible.
   
   
7. With access restrictions your administrator determines which features users may access at which times. For example, by choosing black-and-white printing only, or duplex only, or no colour after 6 p.m., your office may reduce printing costs and save paper.
   
   
8. Look for Scan to Email and Fax Forward to Email, which are available on many Xerox multifunction printers. These features allow incoming faxes and scans to be routed to an email address, saving unnecessary printing.