January 22nd's Tip
Double-Sided Printing: When you're printing at home on an inkjet printer, even less sophisticated models allow for printing on both sides. That's because the driver on the PC does the job. It first prints the odd pages, asks you to place the printed sheets back in the drawer and then prints the even pages on the backside.
Probably, several people know this. But maybe they don't know that you can fix the setting to print on both sides, if you select your printer from the Control Panel (in Windows) and change it to print on both sides there. From then on, as a default, everything you print uses both sides of the paper unless you override the setting by clicking the "Properties" button in the print dialog when you print a specific document.
It helps me to save almost half of the paper at home.
Thanks to Luc at Clever & Easy for today's paper saving tip!
Author's note: For Mac users, the steps for double sided printing depend on what version of the OS you're on. If your printer supports auto double-sided printing, the option should be somewhere in the extended settings after you click print.
Contribute
We are looking for reader submitted tips for Eco-Friendly Friday so we can share some even we may have not heard before. If you've got a unique or informative tip and want to contribute to Eco-Friendly Friday, shoot us an email. Be sure to include your URL if you want a link to your site included with your tip!
16 Responses
1
Robert
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I think more and more people are moving towards the green movement. I do enjoy that your blog has so many great idea's for going green.
2
Jack
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:25 am
Always good to live green from the individual perspective. Not a big fan of government coercion in the matter though.
3
Moritz Langasse
January 24th, 2010 at 1:00 am
Using recycled paper for printing could be a good complement to your proposal. Greetings, Moritz.
4
Susan
January 24th, 2010 at 5:48 am
Thanks for sharing these tips - they are really interesting and informative with some new information, as always!
5
tempo dulu
January 24th, 2010 at 10:50 am
but the best thing is to avoid printing altogether. Mostly we don't need to print stuff. The problem with two sided printing is that the printing may go wrong, meaning you have to print twice.
6
Aida
January 24th, 2010 at 11:09 am
I think its a good idea to reuse anything you can to help the environment. You can also save some money this way as well.
7
jamie@York Catering Supplies
January 24th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I am for going green, we only have one earth to live in, after all. But I'm pissed off with these big companies that are making money out of coercing people to buy or do their stuff.
8
Justin @ saskatoon photographer
January 24th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
yup, I agree, the best is to avoid printing all together, but if you do need to print double sided is the best way to go. But the problem is that it is sometimes inconvenient. Thats why I picked up for under $100 a cheap laser print with built-in double sided printing. now I double side print everything and its just as easy as regular printing!
9
Sanat
January 25th, 2010 at 12:27 am
Thats nice advice. Also if you need to print some photoid or need to copy few photo ids just print it on once paper and then cut the paper!
10
Herretoej
January 25th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Save the paper which will save the forests which will save the eco system and which as as result will save the environment and hence our future will be saved. Thanks for your nice advice.
11
Freya
January 25th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Whatever your tips- going green is better than anything else. We stopped working with trees a couple of years ago(we are carpenters). We received same kind of advice and we stopped our job orders with trees.
12
Veron
January 26th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Even if it wasn't for environmental-friendliness, I would generally prefer printing on both sides. Shaves off the weight eventually. Of course, the best is to go electronic if one can help it.
13
BillyO@ stainless steel travel mugs
January 26th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I have reduced my paper consumption to almost nothing by downloading a free PDF generator off the internet.
Now when I need to print a receipt, spreadsheet, or some other document, I print to the PDF generator first and then add the document to a file on my desktop. Then, if I absolutely need a hard copy, I can always print it later.
This also reduces the amount of chemically treated (ink and toner) paper that you have laying around your house. A whole year's records can be stored quickly and easily on a CD that can be read in any standard computer.
14
Jom
January 26th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I use double side printing most of the time but I did not know about the tip you gave. So thanks.
I also keep the pages in which I have test printed something or the printing did not come out right. I use the other side latter for some personal printing like printing a recipe or something like that.
15
Stefanie
January 30th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
You guys are right, avoiding printing all together is the best way to go, but if you absolutely need to print something, double sided can help drastically reduce paper use.
16
Michael@ Computer Support
February 9th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Justin has the right idea here.
A lot of people that use ink based printers, often find themselves buying a new printer every time the ink runs out, because the ink often costs more then the printer.
If you get laser your are not going to be tempted to do that because toner lasts a lot longer and is cheaper then the printer.