Whether you’re at home, the office or at school, hopefully, you’re doing your best to be kinder to the planet by reducing your resource use and recycling what you can.
Small actions can make a big impact when it comes to the environment. By taking a look at all areas of the home or office to try and reduce our consumption, reuse what we can before we recycle and then rebuy products with recycled content, we can change our daily behaviour for the better. And this philosophy can be applied to our printing habits.
What is sustainable printing?
Sustainable printing is a term that is used to describe the printing process that takes into account the environmental impact of the materials and products used. Sustainable printing practices aim to reduce the amount of waste produced, minimise the use of harmful chemicals, and maximise the use of recycled or recyclable materials.
5 sustainable printing practices
For many of us, printing is still necessary at times. To make this activity as sustainable as possible we’ve come up with five tips to better printing:
1. Only print when it’s essential to do so and print on both sides of the paper
2. Reuse any paper printed on one side as scrap paper or make notebooks
3. Use 100% Australian made recycled office paper such as Planet Ark Paper
4. Recycle all office paper once used, think about hosting a Friday File Fling to get good quality paper back into circulation by recycling
5. Recycle used printer cartridges with Cartridges 4 Planet Ark
For more information on how businesses are achieving sustainability in the workplace, read our guide here.
What are some other ways to print sustainably?
When it comes to sustainable printing, one of the most important factors is resource conservation. One method that stands out in this regard is double-sided printing, also known as duplex printing. Not only does it cut paper usage in half, but it can also help to reduce energy consumption by requiring fewer print runs. Another sustainable printing method is to choose a smaller font size to fit more copy on a page.
About the author:
Claire Bell
Claire is Planet Ark’s Recycling Campaign Manager. After working in the communications industry and raising a young family, she joined Planet Ark to follow her passion for helping the environment.
