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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biters switch from 0% to 100% recycled paper at the office, the paper waste avoided in a day will equal the weight of 23 full, 3-drawer file cabinets.
COCKTAIL FACT
58% of workers admit to taking office supplies for their own personal use.
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home › tip library › Eco-Friendly Office Week - Green Office Supplies
Are you still pushing paper?
The Bite
Believe it or not, even The Bite still uses paper for certain things (we still aren't ready to part with our toilet paper). But cut down on use when you can, and choose greener paper supplies, from cups to envelopes.The Benefits
- A shorter paper trail. Offices use 1.5 lbs of paper per person per day - if you gotta use it, go for recycled to reduce your impact.
- Premium quality. Most recycled paper products look and perform just as well as their non-recycled counterparts.
- Client/staff satisfaction. Recycled options only cost a little more - plus, when your clients and staff see the recycled symbol they'll get all warm and fuzzy.
Personally Speaking
Jen's passionate about paper recycling to the point that she nearly broke a leg falling down the NYC subway while taking recyclables home from her old workplace, which didn't recycle - but pretended they did.Wanna Try?
Cups- Ecotainer - biodegradable coffee cups with corn-based (rather than oil-based) lining. Available here (prices vary).
- Greenware Cold Drink Cups - also biodegradable and corn-based, but for cold drinks.
- Better yet, stock your office kitchen with reusable ceramic mugs.
Copy/Printer Paper
- PM Company Receipt Rolls - 100% recycled alternative for receipt calculators ($15/12 rolls).
- New Leaf Paper - recycled and high-quality, available with matte, gloss or uncoated finishes (prices vary).
- OfficeMax and Staples - even the chain stores sell recycled reams ($5-$6/ream).
Envelopes
- ecoenvelopes - easily reusable business reply envelopes, available in 100% PCW stock.
Other
- 3M Post-It Recycled Paper Notes - everybody needs a sticky little reminder sometimes ($7-$18/12 pads).
- File Folders - 100% recycled and letter-sized ($13/100).
- Ampad Recycled Hanging File Folders - 100% PCW recycled ($12/25).
- Rippedsheets Recycled Labels - recycled paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (prices vary).
- Printing For Less - totally affordable light green printer used by The Bite.
- Conservatree - an excellent online guide to choosing eco-friendly paper products.
Apr 16,2007
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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Paperless Office? Yeah Right.
Do you remember when the internet first took off and not long after everyone was saying, "Soon we will have paperless offices!" In fact, the opposite happened.
I think it did for two reasons:
1) we are sending a TON more information around, so much information that people can't keep up with all the emails so they need to print them off for weekend or subway reading.
2) we don't trust e-data yet...we might lose it to cyberspace or something so we hit "print."
So are we paperless at Ideal Bite? Absolutely not. However, here's what we are able to do:
- Reuse paper by sending it back through on the other side when it is not sensitive info.
- Use the edit mode in Word like nobody's business. As just one example, our tips go through about 5 rounds of edits...imagine if we printed each of our 260+ tips a year at least 5 times.
- Ask that businesses send any info they want to get to us in e-form, so: "Instead of a brochure, just point us to your e-brochure," etc.
- And in the Bozeman office, we lug our paper that's been used on both sides up to the recycling center about once a month. In SF I think they have curb-side...
- We also use recycled paper for our printers and corporate materials. If anyone is interested in business printing services that are green and affordable, go to http://www.printingforless.com, and use the code for $25 off your first order: RP1SZY4SR.
-Jen... off to edit a week's worth of tips in Edit Mode...considering I just got back from a killer cattle drive I won't complain so much working a bit today.
Biter Comments...
Great newsletter on recycled copy paper. Office Depot sells "enviroCopy" which is recycled copy paper. We get ours FREE when we return used printer cartridges! Purchased each ream is around $4.00 or $35.00 for a box!
I can relate to lugging the office-place recycling home. I work in TV production and we create so much excess papewaste. (Not to mention diet coke cans, poland springs bottles and those paper coffee cup trays.) The office building doesn't offer recycling and my earth-guilt won't allow me to just leave it in the trash. My boss used laugh at me when I would fish through his garbage can, but now he brings his empties to my desk. The trunk of my car is usually full of recycling.
Instead of using post-its, scratch paper, and note pads for daily note taking, I use a 8 1/2" x 11" dry erase board - in turn conserving a ton of paper. my "recycling" paper pile has been drastically reduced.
I love IdealBite! Thanks for posting this tip regarding paper use. I posted a link to it on the blog of the Environmental Paper Network called The Paper Planet (http://thepaperplanet.blogspot.com).
Lots of good info in your tip that should be easy for folks to make part of their office life. Including a link to Conservatree's guide was excellent.
I had a couple suggestions on a few things though.
1. Recycled paper at Staples, Office Max, (and Office Depot, not listed though they have a whole "Green Products Catalog") is not quite as expensive as listed, especially if you can only afford the 30% recycled which is sold at the same price as totally virgin.
2. Printing for Less is a good company with good environmental initiatives (a green office building, etc), but it is less than "ideal" for buying recycled paper. The word can not even be found on its website. You have to call and speak to a rep and make a special request for recycled. If you do choose them, please make sure you specifically request recycled paper and ask them to make it a choice on their website in the future.
3. Great one stop shopping online for green office supplies can be found at http://www.recycledproducts.org and at http://www.thegreenoffice.com.
Thanks again for all the great tips Jen.
I feel ya on the trunk full o' recycling comment...My boss used to get tired of me piling up the shredding, and then I would stuff my car to the brim and go two cities over where they had a dumpster for paper. Now, we hire a company to do the shredding & recycling for us!! Persistance pays off! The company is called "Shred-It", and I'm sure there are many more. Maybe you could post a tip to get everyone to slip a little hint to their boss! (I did!)
I am also a take home recycler. Our company is "suppose" to recycle, but since most employees choose to toss garbage in paper recycling bins, the cleaning company refuses to dig through each bin to sort(I don't blame them).
I subscribe to "Ready Made" & they have lots of tips on re-using. They suggest covering the printed side of a business card w/ scrap paper, fold & use as a gift card.
I too was a take-home recycler. it was EXHAUSTING, in the end i wasn't able to convince the boss to enroll in a shredding program.
but one thing that i think is unnecessary are disposable coffee cups, etc. i encouraged everyone in my office to have their own coffee mug, and their own water glass. as a matter of fact i went to the dollar store and physically bought nearly everyone their own cute mug which i signed and their own water glass which was labeled (i work in a small office). Everyone was very appreciative, and open and pretty soon that's all they used. i even got a set of real cutlery which we washed ourselves. Even the cleaning staff was instructed to clean with green products (which we provided), and believe me none of these people were eco-conscious by any means. I just took the reins.
I use a white board constantly and my employees know to add 'to do' tasks on it when I am no around. May not save on a lot of paper but I no longer use yellow stickies
Working for a nonprofit, they don't provide plastic forks, spoons, knives, paper cups and plates. People all have their own cup, and we have donated silverware, which people wash when they are through.
Hey! I've been a silent biter for a bit and just came across your comments on recycled paper, where you commented on not giving up toilty paper, so I'm thinking to myself that I'd suggest a green TP option I've been using for a while... the brand is Seventh Generation, and there's also other products, from detergent to paper towels, all green enough to make me smile, and affordable enough to be allowed into my college student budget.
Also, very off topic, is this new restaurant in my home town of Boulder, Colorado called VG's. The concept is a zero footprint fast food vegan place, and they really do a fantasitc job at it, the cups, forks, paper, and ect, are all biodegradable, and are composted by the company. All the burgers are vegan and the fries are organic and baked, not fried. The soda is srom a place that uses only agave nectar to sweeten their drinks and everything from the burgers to the sodas to the special Jalapeno sauce is all organic and made in a way that's beneficial for the environment. And the best part is, the restaurant itself is powered entirely by wind energy. It's pretty much one of the most incredible restaurant concepts I've seen, not to mention it tates wonderful and is incredibly quick for being so great tasting. They've been considering franchising, so perhaps you could look them up and see if they couldn't get one in your little corner of the country, seing as they're such a new business, I'm sure every word of encouragement will help!
Thanks, guys!
~Errol
At Co-op America (www.coopamerica.org), we work to create the most sustainable office environment: we print on recycled copy paper (and of course printing on BOTH sides), recycled all our plastic, paper, cardboard, we have a compost area in our kitchen, we use energy saving bulbs.
Check out our National Green Pages (http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/greenpages/) where you can find thousands of green businesses that sell coffee, tea, clothing, recycled paper, books candles, appliances, cleaning products, and much much more!
One note on take home recycling: it's only by demanding an established recycling collections system is it going to be easier to recycle all our waste. Basic Econ 101 supply and demand: once enough people demand something, the supply will increase. At the Magazine PAPER Project at Co-op America (www.magazinepaper.org) I work with magazine publishers, helping them switch to recycled paper. Many are concerned that there won't be enough recycled paper if more and more magazines switch; this will be the case unless we speak up now and demand these collection systems. Then there will not be the worry of running out of recycled paper.
I am actually glad this article came up. I can really relate since I work in an office and we go through ungodly amounts of paper. The most hilarious part is the bosses are so cheap to recycle an envelope, i.e. reuse it, and go through so many other wasteful things around here, it can be disgusting.
Since I am always jotting stuff down when I answer the phone, I like the dry erase idea myself.
I do agree about sometimes it is easier to print things off and read it. I'll tell you what made me think of that the most--COLLEGES!!!! It's amazing the crap, yes CRAP that students will print off because they get "free" paper in the labs. Low and behold its coming out of their tuition fees. ;-)
What I do to minimize the amounts of paper I need to use is cut and paste in Microsoft Word and then shrink the text size WAY down and eliminate what unimportant words/pics/etc. Sometimes it can cut the page amount in half. Every little bit helps....
Very encouraging n informative article. We surely need to follow the tips. Besides the above explained stuff, i've seen another big thing happening in the offices...that is paper-pads/office pads, which are being wasted without written anything on that. It should be encouraged to use it properly so alo of paper can be saved. An easy way out.
In Advertising alot of amount of paper is used..documentation or printing..
so what i think that’s where Efact Paperless Office comes in. You may wana check the link,
http://www.efactusa.com/paperlessoffice
Woll...very interesting article.i just came across your article on recycled paper, so I just came across a good way on recycel paper and reuse them on http://www.interracialsingleonline.com/. I feel whay they said are quite reasonabl. however, i am confused the detail on how to recycel them, could you help to show me some more details? or offer some other ideas...?
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Thought regular snail mail was going to be abolished, but on the other hand it really hasnt had much affect. In fact here Aus Post has reported record profits due to the increased volume of online purchases. So snail mail is still here to stay :)
I work at full color printing shop http://sacdigital.com and we are at the opposite end of the spectrum since we are actually a printing company, but we do lots of green things to help. We recycle all of our paper waste and we keep it to a minimum. We also use soy-based inks instead of petroleum or vegetable-based. We also have lots recycled stocks to choose from making the choice to go green a little easier.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: JS | April 16, 2007 at 07:06 AM