Double Sided Printing?

Surely. We've had that default going for yonx, and (although I don't think actual statistics can be constructed now) it must clearly save of the order of 30-50% of paper. Obviously there are still occasions for single-sided printing, and there are many one-sided documents that need to be printed, but we are trying to teach one another to cope with that too. This institution is far from downtown (it's an observatory), and since all paper that is discarded is trucked away in "recycle" boxes our greater concern is therefore as much the amount that is discarded as the amount that is used. Paper is relatively cheap in environmental terms, but fuel for the trucks is not. So our recent battle is on cutting down on what is discarded. Where one side of discarded sheets is still blank, we are teaching staff to place those in separate trays and we make those sheets available as rough-working pads (possibly just stapled or clipped together), thus cutting down on our purchases of pads of paper. The economic return is not likely to be tremendous, but that isn't the prime driver here; it's raising awareness of environmental issues by nudging people (who would otherwise toss even completely blank sheets into the "recycle" box because it's there acting as a waste bucket) into thinking a little about what we/they are doing and why. It is all part of an effort to induce behavioural change rather than merely try to legislate it; Doug M-M can provide untold evidence that the latter is ineffective.

Elizabeth Griffin
(Victoria, Canada)

Dear Gary,

Not as a whole department, but several units have done so. I would like to share a funny story with you about duplex copying for Ministerial papers. Apparently a Minister read a document in parliament somewhere and did not know it was double sided. The result was a disjointed speech as he only read every second page. Some could say they could not pick the difference in the content.

Kind regards
Cam Mackenzie

Principal Advisor (Environmental Sustainability)
Indigenous Education and Strategic Implementation
Queensland Department of Education, Training and the Arts
P O Box 15033, City East Brisbane
Queensland Australia 4002
ph +61 7 3237 0405
fax +61 7 3235 4099
Mobile 0434 079 620
email : [email protected]
website http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/learning/sustainability.html

Hi Gary and all,

The South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage reported the following in its 'greening' appendix to the 2001-02 Annual Report (p70 of document, p31 of pdf): www.environment.sa.gov.au/dehaa/pdfs/annual02_abridged2.pdf 'the consumption of paper across the department fell from 1520 reams per month in November 2001 to 1185 reams per month in June 2002 - a 22 per cent reduction in paper usage and an annual decrease of 4000 reams. This significant result can be attributed to a change to duplex printing; in the EPA, where a substantial investment was made in new printers with this capacity, the reduction achieved was 38.5 per cent.'

Cheers,
Sharon Ede

Research/Project Officer
Zero Waste SA
www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au

Gary

Metro is the regional government for Portland OR and have 325+ employees at our HQ. We have recycling and solid waste in our portfolio. The key factor is setting each employee's computer to print on two sides as the default. We have digital copiers that both print and serve as stand up copiers. The default for the copier is 2 sided documents from 1 sided originals. Monthly measurements were taken for 3 years. The best departments consistently produce about 80% of their documents as 2 sided, which includes those printed from the computer and those that use it as a copier. All departments average 60% of total images as 2 sided copies. The lowest performing departments tend to be those with special needs, such as legal and financial at 40%. We have a print shop that achieves over 90% 2 sided pages and accounts for more than half our copies. HQ averages about 80% for all documents when the print shop is included.

Steve Apotheker

Senior Recycling Analyst
Waste Reduction, Planning & Outreach Metro
600 NE Grand Avenue
Portland, OR 97232-2736
(503) 797-1698
(503) 797-1795
fax [email protected]
www.metro-region.org

Hi Elizabeth,

At Sustainability Victoria we have used double sided printing as the default for a long time. In most instances people also select the double sided option when photocopying. We now also have a dedicated drawer in the printer for recycling one-sided paper which staff can use to print off draft copies or papers for in-house use. One problem we have is the fact that people often send items to the printer but then for one reason or another do not go to collect them or forget they have sent them and resend them, etc. To overcome this we have established a system at the printer whereby the particular item to be printed has to selected from an electronic display on the printer before the printer actually prints the document. If a document is not selected and printed within a certain time the printer deletes it from its memory. We still have a bit of a problem with "orphan prints" but it is now significantly less that it was before. We are also making more use of our laptop computers at meetings so that agendas and minutes are displayed on the overhead projector rather than being printed and handed out to participants. Our overall paper use is now about half what it was a couple of years ago (from a bit over 11 reams to about 6 reams per year per full time equivalent employee.

Regards
John

John Osborne
Renewables, Sustainability Victoria
T: 03 8626 8783 | F: 03 9663 1007
Level 28, Urban Workshop,
50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 3000
www.sustainability.vic.gov.au 

Hello, Gary,

Our agency moved to duplex-default printing in 2003. The goal was to reduce paper use by 30% to break even on the added cost of changing to certified-chlorine-free 100-percent-recycled paper. We reduced paper use by 12.4 % the first year and 45% since the 2003 baseline. This reduction cannot be attributed to duplexing, alone, though, because there was a concurrent "challenge" that included publicizing suggested printing practices and prompts at the printers and supply cabinets. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Good luck!
Diana Ruth Olegre

Washington State Department of Ecology
Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program
Community Outreach and Environmental Education Specialist [email protected]
360-407-6609

Do you mind sending me a copy of those suggested printing practices? We are in the midst of developing similar material and would appreciate seeing what others have done.

Thanks & Adios,
CJD ----

Carol J. Dollard, P.E., LEED AP
Utility Engineer
[email protected]