Once upon a time, environmentalists and techno professionals proclaimed that offices around the world would eventually become paperless. While it may seem to be a reasonable prediction, studies show that to date it’s not so. A new report shows that companies are still in love with their paper, to the point of being outrageously wasteful when printing documents. There are some office workers who continue to believe that they look busier or more important if their desks are littered with sheaves of paper.
According to Envirowise, a government funded environmental consultancy programme, claims that offices in the UK are wasting approximately 120 billion pieces of paper every year. The report released by Envirowise stated that the average office worker printed 22 sheets of paper every day.
“Unnecessary printing of e-mails, multiple copies, single-sided printing and the sending of massive documents to the printer which are unlikely to be read are just some of the regular scenarios lived out by businesses every day as a result of accidental printing,” said Mary Leonard, a director at Envirowise.
According to the report, generating such a large amount of office waste can equal nearly 4% of the company’s turnover, said Envirowise. Ms Leonard added: “Most offices will find they can reduce waste costs by around 20% through simple no or low cost actions.
“Measures such as double sided or multiple page printing and recycling instead of paying for disposal can really help.”
Imagine how much more efficient offices could be if they also remembered to recycle their used ink cartridges.
To learn more about Envirowise, go to: envirowise.gov.uk
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