Eco-friendly printing: Print your work responsibly

Perhaps now more than ever, the world is focusing its efforts on reducing its carbon footprint bit by bit, to delay the harmful effects of greenhouse gases on our ecosystem. In a business it is important to not only reduce waste, but find ways to go further such as recycling, buying machinery with lower emissions and using less paper.

Greenhouse gases are rapidly affecting our ecosystem for the worse. It is important that every business is aware of how their actions can make their carbon footprint bigger, such as using non-energy efficient machinery or not recycling waste products. When these are taken into consideration and action is taken towards eco printing, a business can go about changing for the better- just look at these recycling statistics from the past decade.

In the digital printing business (which inevitably revolves around the use of paper!), being eco-friendly is of the utmost importance. Luckily, in this industry it is possible to be successful and profitable as well as being ‘green’. Many printers sold now have a duplexing unit built within the machinery so they can print text and images on both sides of the paper—this can massively reduce waste paper and if the paper is recycled to begin with, the environment can remain unaltered.

Another way to reduce energy in the printing office is to install a HP Indigo press. These revolutionary presses have a reduced energy and waste paper rate, which can go much further in creating a greener office environment. Not only are these short run colour printers efficient in production level, but their energy efficiency raises the bar for all other printing presses.

Recycling toner and printer cartridges is yet another way to lower an office’s carbon footprint. Sixty million printer cartridges are sold in the UK and a measly fifteen per cent of these are recycled and the rest left in landfill. These cartridges can take thousands of years to decompose and could therefore provide a risk to the environment. Recycled cartridges cost less to manufacture and buy therefore they will not make a business out of pocket or increase the amount of landfill produced.

Before investing in some digital printing, ensure that your digital printing supplier is keeping up with their recycling and eco-friendly methods to not only get the most out of your work, but to have peace of mind that the environment has not been harmed by any printing you have ordered.

Photo by Dan Taylr