Printing on Both Sides of Paper

It's been about 30 years since the term "paperless office" was first coined. I remember quite a few years ago Bill Gates declaring that the paperless office was just around the corner. Well, maybe not so much. For a while, if anything, I think computers, printers, copiers, and fax machines caused people to use more paper, not less. This article, though a couple of years old, was very interesting to me as I researched this blog entry. It talks a lot about the advances that have happened lately to make the paperless office more of a reality.

I work in the publications department of an environmental consulting firm, and over the past 14 years I have definitely seen a trend away from generating multiple copies of a 500-volume in favor of sending the same information electronically in PDF form. Still, our office tends to go through an incomprehensible number of reams of paper each year.

For years at work, and more recently at home, I have been saving paper that has been printed on one side, that would normally just be headed to the recycle bin, for use a second time. I keep the paper in a tray on my computer stand, right next to the unused paper. Here's some of the things I print on the backside:

• E-mail messages (though only when absolutely necessary)
• Online banking confirmations that I am just going to shred when the statement arrives
• Online shopping receipts
• Weekly lists from the Grocery Game
• Grocery coupons found online
• A copy of my boys' weekly schedule I give my mother-in-law
• My weekly Young Women's lesson from lds.org
• Directions that I have searched for online
• Grade reports for my kids.

You get the idea. Essentially, if it is anything that I need for personal use that will likely just end up in the recycle bin anyway, I toss it on the backside. Even if I decide to save any of these things, the fact that there is something on the backside is usually not that important.