Save Printing Paper!

Do YOU have a question for the Green Team? Ask us, and we may use it in an upcoming eco-tip!
By Thomas Wong, Public Works Department

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We’ve all heard the message before! Save paper, print less, and recycle. Here are some facts to put paper use and its impact into perspective. The average person in America uses 500 pounds of paper a year! 62 million trees are logged each year for paper production in the U.S. alone and 4% of the world’s total energy use goes towards paper production. The numbers are staggering and while one piece of paper may not seem like much imagine if everyone in the U.S. used one less sheet of paper today. The weight of that paper saved would weight three times more than the Statue of Liberty!

Three Simple Things You Can Do:

1. Print Selective Pages: Only print the pages you need!
   • To print select pages use the “-“ to print a range. For example, to print pages 10 through 20 enter, “10-20” in the pages section (Do not use quote marks). To print select pages use a comma. For example if you want to print pages 3, 6, and 24 you would enter, “3,6,24” in the pages section.
     *Note: the pages correspond to the number of pages in the document not necessarily the page numbers printed in the document.
2. Print Double Sided: Use half the paper!
   • Select ‘print on both sides’ under settings
   • If you receive this print screen, click properties. After that there should be an option for 2 sided printing. Every printer is different so please contact your Green Team representative if you need assistance finding this option.
3. Default to Double Sided Printing:
   While most of the city’s printers are already set to default double sided printing, if yours is not it’s easy to do! You can always change to single sided printing by going to the same setting as the double sided instructions and images shown in the previous tip.

Do YOU have a question for the Green Team? Ask us, and we may use it in an upcoming eco-tip!

Love,

Your Employee Green Team

Resources used in this Eco-Tip:
Paper Use Statistics
Impact of Consumption
Double-sided printing