Printing Double Sided

From a strictly logical point of view, if you only print on one side the other side can be re-used. I routinely save one sided mailings, etc for scrap paper, note pads or re-use at the office for non-public printing.

Cindy Belt,

Education and Outreach Coordinator
The Nature Conservancy-Mashomack Preserve
79 So. Ferry Rd, PO Box 850,
Shelter Island, NY 11964
phone: 631-749-1001
FAX: 631-749-4244
e-mail: [email protected]

I'm not sure I understand this. If you only have one page of content, what is there to put on the back? It doesn't make sense in any sphere of thinking to add content just for the sake of using up the other side. In my experience the usual path is identifying the need, determining the best method to address the need, and then creating content to meet the need within budget and other constraints. This is what dictates printing format on the production side.

John McGee

Environmental Scientist II
Adopt-A-Pond Program Coordinator
601 E Kennedy Blvd, 23rd Floor
Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 307-1785
[email protected]

Chad,

I routinely re-design fliers and what not to utilize the second side of a sheet of paper. This creates a '2-up" document design that does require cutting in half, but half the paper is being used more economically. Financially, if you set your printer to print 2 sided by default, (in our office we are networked to a multi-function copy machine) is does cost more to print 2 sides of a one sided document. The policy in our office is to recycle one-sided documents in one of our 5 trays and default to that for all inter-office one-sided copies. Due diligence of your printer/copier settings is really what controls waste and ultimately the cost of copies. Printing in b&w is always less expensive than 4-color. The simplistic view is to design your marketing to take advantage of b&w art. Use color for documents that are designed to impress, or impress with unusual recycled paper stock and get creative with b&w artwork and fonts. Before we had color we used textures, backgrounds and shapes to dress diagrams and fliers, color is nice, but I have seen some really great marketing pieces in black and white.

Hope I helped,
Beth Clawson

Resource Recovery/ Natural Resources Extension Educator
MSU Extension Van Buren
801 Hazen St, Suite A
Paw Paw, MI 49079
Phone: 269-657-7745
Fax: 269-657-6678
Cell: 269-330-5554
[email protected]
www.msue.msu.edu/vanburen

Printing something on a blank backside just to fill it doesn't make economic sense, since it usually costs more and doesn't serve a purpose. (Though not always. We did one poster where the Printer didn't charge extra, so we just printed the image on both sides) Amazing how ingrained some environmental behaviors can be, isn't it? Some of us just cannot let a whole side of a page go without something on it, because we've been taught not to, and we've bought into it. I'd call that a successful behavior change! So, if you don't want the appearance of wasting a back side of a page, you can put a little icon on the bottom of the front encouraging your audience to reuse the page on the back. Or, if appropriate, you could have the content on the front translated into a second language and placed on the back, extending your piece's reach to a different audience.

Mary Morse

Associate Environmental Services Specialist
City of San Jos Watershed Protection
170 West San Carlos St, San Jos CA 95113
phone: 408-277-2767
fax: 408-277-5775
Are you Water Aware?
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/esd/water-awareness.htm

To clarify, is this in reference to the waste of having the printer set to 2 sided printing, causing the paper to be pulled back through the printer (and not printed on) if it is only a 1-page document?

'Appearance' is the word Mary, You picked it and this is the behaviour that we would, at times, seek to change. When we are stuck on appearing to be one way or another we are not actually acting consciously and this has and is still leading us to be less than sustainable. Some of my close friends are not really concerned about changing their behaviour to save water or waste as they may appear to be too green or worrying unnecessarily and would attract criticism from their peers. Perhaps it goes back to wanting to be the same and not standing out in a crowd that many young people express, such as girls of 6-8 and boys of 10-12, you know: be like everyone else and life is easier and no one picks on you, type of thinking. Anyway, for what it is worth, I see assuming others who suggest action to sustain us are not exhibiting 'enlightened' behaviour is perhaps behaviour in itself that we can move on from, as surely the whole issue of experimenting and discussing is useful. Your suggestions about another language on reverse side and icon recommending reuse of blank side I reckon are great and I had not thought of them. However, what I perceived the double sided matter to be about is, if I can at any time print on both sides of a page, which is part of a document being distributed or retained for reference, then I do. Any internal docs are certainly double printed and anything that comes in with one blank side I use for note taking and printing of internal stuff. I can not see how this increases the cost of printing or using a printer, though I have not checked this against electricity bills or consumables. Not sure how one can print on both sides if there is only enough info for one and I suspect that comment was one of those smallish dark pink fish often found in tins in northern countries or delicatessens. Perhaps in danger of extinction too if we are not careful.

Kind regards,
Paul GEENI