Design Vitality

So why does saving paper even matter?

For starters, the pulp and paper industry is the third largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry. In 2005, out of 245,000,000 tons of waste 34.2% was paper according to the EPA. That is over 83,300,000 tons of paper that is wasted every year.

When I first heard about Blog Action Day I knew this was a way that everyone, including designers, could easily help the environment.

About 20,000,000 trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for production of books in the US alone. So think green and save the environment while saving yourself some money by using less paper.

What can You do to Kill Paper Waste instead of Trees?

1. Buy Recycled Paper, Duh
   According to the City of Seattle a ton of paper made from recycled paper, as opposed to virgin paper, saves the equivalent of 4,100 kilowatt hours of energy, 7000 gallons of water, 60 pounds of air emissions, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space.
2. Check Your Work to Avoid Printing Copies that Have to Be Thrown Away
   Make sure to spell check your work, and even read over it on screen. Use the Print Preview feature to preview your work to make sure everything lines up correctly.
3. Use the Print Range feature to Print Only what You Need
   You can use the Print range feature available in most programs to print only the exact pages or the selected text that you need.
4. Don’t Throw Away Your Mis-prints, Keep it as Draft Paper
   You can keep paper that you may have printed earlier which you no longer need, and print on the blank side instead of throwing it way like I am sure we have all done before. You can even use it to jot down notes for yourself instead of wasting Post it notes.
5. Make Use of Double Sided Printing
   It’s actually pretty simple. First print the odd pages by editing the Print range after pressing Ctrl+P. Then flip the pages over and put them back in the paper tray. Then just print the even pages by editing the Print range once again.
6. Avoid Printed Envelope Labels, And Print Directly on to the Envelope
   Save paper by avoiding printing addresses on to labels, only to turn around and stick that label on an envelope. It is very easy to addresses and more right onto the label using Microsoft Word or other word processing programs.
7. Send Documents via eMail or eFax
   Although you may not always be able to, try to send stuff via email whenever possible. If you are going to fax something, many times people never use the functionality of many printers which allows for eFax. With eFax you don’t have to print something out just to stick in the fax machine and then throw it away when your done.

Design Vitality is a proud participant of Blog Action Day.

Sources referenced: The Rainforest Action Network, the EPA and the City of Seattle paper waste prevention program.