Are You a Green Printer? [Infographic]

Paper comprises 50 percent of business’ waste, and the average American uses 700 pounds of paper products each year. This translates into a significant amount of waste – particularly if paperboard and other products do not get recycled. While it’s easy to ignore your environmental impact in the workplace, more and more people are fortunately making small changes to make their business more eco-friendly.

By simply being more mindful of your printing habits and paper usage, you can drastically reduce the amount of paper and energy you waste. We conducted a survey of over 200 Cartridge World customers and were happy to see that many of them are already environmentally-conscious with their printing choices. Here are a few highlights from our results:

50 Percent of Respondents Frequently or Always Consider the Environment before Printing

Being conscious of your actions’ effects on the environment as a whole is the first step in creating a greener office. When you’re aware of your environmental impact, you’re much more likely to start implementing small, easy changes to significantly reduce your footprint. This could be anything from cutting your paper usage in half by printing double-sided pages, or saving energy by leaving your printer on sleep mode or other energy-efficient settings.

98.5 Percent of Respondents Recycle Printing Materials

Only three survey respondents – less than 1.5 percent – said they never recycle printing materials, like paper or used cartridges. This is an extremely promising statistic, demonstrating people are working to keep substantial amounts of paper and other waste out of landfills, so they can be reused later on.

78 Percent of Respondents Do Not Have an Office Print Policy

Although many of our survey respondents try to promote green printing habits, less than one-quarter of respondents had an office print policy in place. Office print policies can reduce your paper usage by up to 20 percent.

To get started, create systems that allow staff to measure how many print copies they’re responsible for each month, and track each department’s usage. This motivates many people to reduce their personal paper footprint, especially if they’re surprised by the amount they print. Conducting paperless meetings, reducing print runs and consolidating your printer fleet are all other great ways to reduce your footprint within an office print policy.

If you’re interested in learning how you can decrease your business’ environmental footprint, visit our website and get an office print assessment.