Save Paper & Ink

My Grandmother would send us hand-written letters from time to time. She’d start on the front of the page. When that was filled, she’d continue on the back of the page. When that was filled she’d return to the front of the page and fill the top margin, then the right-hand margin (turning the paper side-ways), then the bottom margin, then the left margin. Then she’d turn the paper over again and fill the margins on the back side. When she had completely run out of room, that was the end of her letter.
We thought it was humorous for her to do that rather than use another sheet of paper. Now, we do the same thing in order to save paper, in order to save trees, in order to save the environment.

     Actually, my favorite method of saving paper is to use junior size legal pads. Most of my writing consists of notes and usually my notes take no more than that size sheet of paper. Then I turn it over for another set of notes. Alternatively I use a regular sheet of paper folded in half horizontally, so that I have two smaller sheets of paper (when turned sideways). Usually that’s a sheet of paper that’s already been printed on one side.

     You can make your own paper out of many things, even broccoli. Most recipes include recycling newspapers or scraps of other paper, but you probably have plenty of paper that you’re recycling anyway. For a Green Office, Paper Saving, Home-Made Paper seminar, contact me at Yellow Bear Journeys and let me know that you’re interested. It takes me about 6 months to set these seminars up, and I usually do them in Olympia, WA, but am open to doing one in your locale.

     Perhaps the simplest methods of saving paper and printer ink are presented by Print Greener and Change the Margins. Print Greener sells GreenPrint Software which intercepts what you’re printing on you computer before it reaches the printer and allows you to specify which pages to not print. Print Greener also sells the Evergreen Font which spaces letters closer together, saving paper and ink by printing more in less space. Change the Margins is a campaign which encourages reducing your word processing default margins to three-quarter (.75) inches. Of course you can reduce them even more (depending on your printer and if you want page headers and/or footers). Change the Margins also has a petition to ask Microsoft to change the defaults to three-quarter inches.

Other changes you can make on your computer include changing your printer to always print in duplex (double-sided) mode when possible – provided your printer prints in duplex reliably. Or you can print one page at a time and manually duplex the printout. You can print two pages per page and duplex at the same time, thus getting four pages per printed page. Of course you might need to buy new glasses if you do that. Choose a low ink use font. For plain sans serif fonts choose Evergreen or Arial Narrow first, then Arial, then Verdana, then Tahoma. Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, often use shorter letters then sans serif letters, so you get a few more lines on a page. However the serifs take more ink to print them, so I’s not sure that sans serif saves any ink. And of course every bigger font, bold and underscore takes more ink, and italic might also if it skews the letters enough to make them take more room than normal. And all the fancy script fonts take more ink. But you don’t want to make your print too dull and boring.

Another option is to buy tree-free paper. Recycled paper is less expensive and easier to come by than tree-free paper, but less exciting. If you do use recycled paper, try and find at least 50% post consumer waste (PCW) recycled. For tree-free paper, my favorite is Lokta. Lokta is an evergreen that grows in Nepal and other nearby countries. This evergreen is pruned and it’s from the prunings that the paper is made. So, not exactly tree free, but no trees were cut down in the process. Kenaf is another great option. Kenaf is a grass which grows very fast and very tall (8 ft or more). It could be a good cash crop in the southern (or possibly a little higher) states. Other grasses could also be used but I’m not aware of any commercially available. Kadda is made of left-over cotton scraps. Elephant Dung Paper goes over big with some kids. Hemp, Flax, Abaca (similar to Banana), Cotton, Weeds, Thistle, Seaweed, Garlic Skin, Coffee Bean, Cigar, Coffee, Banana, Lemon, Mango, and Sugar Cane (Bagasse) papers may be available. Mulberry paper is popular in Japan, but I couldn’t find any sources for this. Most of these are hand-made, meaning they do not have smooth surfaces, meaning they may not work well in your computer printer. For 100% post consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper, there’s paper made from old maps and paper made from junk mail. And, you can buy seed paper which you can plant when you’re done with it.

     The best finds for tree-free and recycled paper are:
     •  Green Earth Office Supply – 100% PCW, Lokta, Hemp, Blue Jean/Denim, Coffee, Recycled Maps (Forest Saver), Banana
     •  Rawganique – Hemp
     •  Green Field Paper – Hemp, Seed
     •  Green Line Paper – 100% PCW
     •  Tree Cycle – 100% PCW, Cotton, Linen
     •  Conservatree – Paper Master List. This list lists all the tree free and 100% PCW paper makers and what their products consist of. This includes not only writing paper, but newsprint, paper towels, and facial tissue.
     •  Paper High – Kadda, Lokta, Elephant Dung.
     •  Church of the Living Tree prints business cards, brochures, etc. for you on their hand-made papers – Hemp, Flax, Abaca, Cotton, Weeds.
     •  Eco Paper – Cigar, Coffee, Banana, Lemon, Mango.
     •  Grays Harbor Paper – 100% PCW and uses 100% renewable energy.

     Other ideas for saving paper and ink can be found at:
     •  APFill Software to estimate ink/page.
     •  Ink Saver software that changes ink settings on your printer in the background while printing documents.
     •  Digital Inspiration – Best Ways to reduce printing cost.
     •  University of Kansas Ways to reduce paper usage (computer related)
     •  People Making Good – A Green Printing Primer
     •  Mercer Color’s Guidelines for a Green Pressroom
     •  EcoLibris – Green Printing Tips
     •  Environmental Defense Fund – Paper Calculator – Environmental Costs
     •  Neenah Paper – Paper Calculator – Environmental Costs
     •  Mohawk Paper – Click on Resources, then Calculators. Environmental Costs & Paper Math.
     •  D*I*Y Planner Reduce ink while printing 3x5 cards

     There seem to be at least a few brochure and business card printers who print on 100% PCW paper. I use Greener Printer and Hot Cards. They are reasonably priced and do good work, plus I can submit the drafts over the internet. Check my Green Printer Director and Green America’s Green Pages for others. In the UK, there’s Gemini Press.

     Vegetable based inks is another option to reducing ink. Vegetable based inks do not use petroleum products. They do, however, use vegetable based ethanol, which is still ethanol and needs to be adequately vented to say the least. Vegetable based ink cartridges are not yet available, so you have to go with a printing company. For hand-written items, you can switch to pencils (other eco problems there), or sharpen a stick (or use an old fashioned pen or quill) and dip it into a natural dye – blackberry juice for example.

     Web page programmers can make their web pages use less paper and ink. This can be done by offering a print link to a separate page without graphics and minimal text. Alternately, you can do this in the background via CSS Media=print option. Theoretically, you can condense the font also, but that takes a lot of programming and usually doesn’t work. Perhaps easiest is to use <FONT> or CSS to use more condensed fonts as the first choices. Evergreen is the most condensed font. If you can offer a solution to convert existing webpages to ones that use less ink, it may be a big seller. If you use this idea, please convert my webpages for free.

     Here’s my best idea for saving paper and ink. Design a font that besides being condensed, also has an extended character set, as most fonts do. The difference is that these extended characters are actually commonly used two and three letter words, written in the same manner as some fractions like 1/2. So, for instance the would be written with t in the upper left, h in the middle, and e in the lower right. If you design this font, I want a free copy – my tomes are taking too much paper to print :)

     The easiest ways to reduce paper usage are to reduce the margins, reduce white space, and print double sided. For every page not printed, here’s what a typical person will save: (info derived from Change The Margins)

1 page	=	0.0001	tree
1 page	=	1.1079	Homes Powered for a Minute
1 page	=	0.0285	lb GHG
1 page	=	0.0114	lb Solid Waste
1 page	=	0.0936	Gal Wastewater
1 page	=	0.8333	Cents

100 pages	=	0.0120	tree
100 pages	=	1.8465	Homes Powered for an Hour
100 pages	=	2.8451	lb GHG
100 pages	=	1.1392	lb Solid Waste
100 pages	=	9.3567	Gal Wastewater
100 pages	=	0.8333	$

1 ream	=	0.0600	tree
1 ream	=	9.2327	Homes Powered for an Hour
1 ream	=	14.2255	lb GHG
1 ream	=	5.6959	lb Solid Waste
1 ream	=	46.7836	Gal Wastewater
1 ream	=	4.1667	$

1 case	=	0.7200	tree
1 case	=	4.6000	Homes Powered for a Day
1 case	=	0.0853	tons GHG
1 case	=	0.0342	tons Solid Waste
1 case	=	561.4035	Gal Wastewater
1 case	=	50	$