The environmental aspects of printing

Compared to other economic topics, the role of printing and ink waste has a smaller impact on global warming, but it still is making an impact, so we need to talk about the responsibilities regarding it.

Ink printers and their ink are made up of several ingredients, most of them chemicals that have the potential to be damaging to the environment. If an ink contains pigments with heavy metals (such as lead, cadmium, or chromium) or is mixed with solvents containing hazardous materials, then it is considered hazardous waste. The amount of this kind of ink is very high due to extensive office-based consumption, and it is questionable whether the disposal of it meets the required regulations in every case. Unfortunately, most of the empty ink and toner cartridges end up in landfills.

Not only disposing it and recycling it is a major problem, but the production part is also quite harmful to the environment. Producing a new laser cartridge consumes about 3 liters of oil. For inkjet cartridges, about 3 ml of oil is required.

Apart from disposing of the printer ink cartridges correctly, it’s also important to raise education on how to reduce the waste of these cartridges. For example, if you do need to print, minimize the print space and use the double-sided feature. Ask yourself frequently, if you really need to print that email.

There are lots of helpful solution to reduce the number of documents that need to be printed. When printing is eliminated and the data is stored elsewhere in an enterprise, a lot of free space is generated at the office and the environmental hazard is reduced as well. Linked to this problem, cloud storage has been a good solution for accessing files online, and eliminate printing as much as possible.

DocuBank makes it easier to categorize and reach the most important documents of your company, without the need to print them. There is a possibility to update the DocuBank document cloud in multiple dimensions, so documents are easy to find later on as well. This means that you can label your documents by category, type, project, and by other data that is relevant to keep them organized.

Consider printing less and taking actions in being more environmental friendly, as there is only one Earth for us all to live in.

You might also be interested in:

• How to create a document management system that lasts

• Advantages of cloud-based document management

• A guide for documenting business processes

• Advantages of a paperless office