It’s a sad fact that businesses waste a lot of paper. Every year, thousands of trees must be used to produce a paper that ends up being thrown away in many offices. This is not a good use of resources. If you are concerned about the paper waste in your office, you do have some choices for dealing with it. Below are a few options for dealing with your paper waste.
Go Paperless
One of the easiest ways to deal with paper waste is to eliminate it all together from your workplace. Going paperless has certain great benefits. For one, it will slash overhead expenses. You won’t have to purchase things like printer paper, toner, or ink. You won’t have to pay for expensive copy machines and printers, and you won’t have to pay to have those machines serviced either. Almost everything you can do with paper can be replicated more efficiently with digital files. Email is superior to memos. Digital graphs and charts can have much more detail and can be animated. Video explains things far better than printed-out images can. There is really nothing that exists in a paper form that can’t be recreated or even improved upon in a digital format.
Recycle
However, not every business can go paperless. Part of the reason for this is that many vendors, suppliers, clients, and business partners may expect to receive certain things in the paper. In this case, you can deal with that paper waste by recycling. Form a relationship with a paper recycling company, someone like Mid America Paper Recycling Co. Have your paper waste placed into bins and have it picked up by the recycling company on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This paper will then be reused to create paper products without more trees having to be cut down to do so. It allows you to get rid of your waste and continue using paper without putting an extra strain on the environment.
Limit the Paper You Use to Important Documents
Another strategy is to simply greatly limit the amount of paper you use in the office. This is a compromise that may be more feasible for many people than going paperless entirely. Instead, restrict paper use to only important documents that should exist in a paper format, to begin with. This would certainly be the case for things like contracts and records that should be stored in a physical form in your offices. As a general rule, if a document is not for permanent use, it should not be printed. Otherwise, it should go into a filing cabinet.
Overall, offices waste a lot of paper. Consider lessening that waste by recycling, limiting paper use to only important documents, or going paperless entirely. It will certainly lessen your impact on the environment.
Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max.
