Go Green
To Print or Not to Print at All: A Basic Dilemma in Green Printing
When we practice green printing, what we basically try to do is to minimize the amount of time, effort, energy and resources that we need to consume when we do our printing jobs.
To Print or Not to Print at All: A Basic Dilemma in Green Printing
When we practice green printing, what we basically try to do is to minimize the amount of time, effort, energy and resources that we need to consume when we do our printing jobs. One of the ways to do get green printing done is to print on both sides of the paper, to use paper that are not made from virgin fibers, to optimize the use of both printer and printer ink, and a host of other things.
But one of the basic questions in green printing is when to print and when not to print a document. Many people disagree on this matter. Some people believe that if you do not really need to get a document printed, then do not print it at all. You can read the document on the computer itself, after all.
On the other hand, there are some people who think that it is more environmentally friendly to print an entire document, and then turn the computer off. According to these people, printing the document saves up on energy and prevents eyestrain.
It definitely does not make sense to print out a one-page document when only two or three lines on it. It is a waste of paper, energy and time. But what about a really long document – say, 100 pages?
In his column at Salon.com, green technologist Pablo Paster made a simple computation of the carbon emissions created by reading a 100-page document on a computer. He then compared it to the carbon emissions created by printing the same document out first before printing it. According to his computation, reading the document on the computer creates only a tenth of a pound of greenhouse gases, while printing it out will create a fourth of a pound. It definitely shows that it is better to read it rather than print it.
The situation changes, however, if the document needs to be read multiple times. If you are to practice green printing, it would be more environmentally conscious to just print the document and keep it as a handy reference if you plan to read it more than once. In green printing, you need to look at the bigger picture, after all, and not just on the minutiae.
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