HP's kinder, gentler stance toward printer paper
Summary: I know I'm dating myself, but when I was a girl hooked on Nancy Drew mysteries, disappearing ink was all the rage as a tactic for covert operations. Now, as I sit staring at my printer every day, reluctantly printing out notes and other items that I just can't deal with on screen, I think more about how to make office paper demand disappear and about how to make paper responsibly without making all the trees disappear.
I know I'm dating myself, but when I was a girl hooked on Nancy Drew mysteries, disappearing ink was all the rage as a tactic for covert operations. Now, as I sit staring at my printer every day, reluctantly printing out notes and other items that I just can't deal with on screen, I think more about how to make office paper demand disappear and about how to make paper responsibly without making all the trees disappear.
Yes, I know that there are companies that cultivate and harvest trees solely for that purpose. But it isn't just trees we are talking about that make the overuse of printing so troublesome. It's all the chemicals involved in the process, as well as all the inks that soak into paper when we use it that have to be sucked out before we recycle. You've got to wonder what impact the digital photo revolution has had, as well. Are the chemicals that we use to print photos at home worse, better, the same as the ones used in professional processing. A subject for another blog.
The point in all this being that paper usage is one of those things we have to address both at the source and in terms of usage habits.
Hewlett-Packard is adopting a more aggressive environmental stand, as it should, considering that it sells more than 280,000 tons of paper annually (including all formats AND including photo media). This commitment is demonstrated by its decision to join the Global Forest and Trade Network in North America. This is a program run by the World Wildlife Fund that commits HP to increasing "progressively" the amount of "responsibly harvested" fiber in its paper products. The company is actually targeting a goal of sourcing 40 percent of its paper sales from the Forest Stewardship Council.
Now, HP and others need to spend more time teaching idiots like me how to get the duplex feature on their printers working a default (mine chooses only to work with my word processor right now, but not when I'm printing from the Internet).
P.S. I am now shoving the paper that I just used to print a press release about the HP program back into my printer so that at least both sides are used.
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Talkback
A question and a comment
Question: For 20 years at other employers and home I did that and it worked fine. But for some reason, at my current employer the paper we buy ([b][i]various[/i][/b] brands, basically copy paper,) routinely jams laser printers if it is re-used, pulling off several sheets. It jams both HP and Samsung printers, a variety of HP models. This happens both at home and work in Dallas, Texas. (One of the places I did it for 6 years was also in Dallas.) Does anyone have any ideas why and how to fix it? As mentioned, it's not just one brand of paper or printer.
Commment: Back in the mid-90's I asked an HP-trained tech if there would be problems with printing on both sides using ordinary copier paper in a laser printer not designed for duplex printing. He said that HP had actually done studies. They found that about 1 re-used page in 50 will wind up "crinkled" from the heat. Of course, my reaction was that to save 49 sheets of paper--commonly several days' worth of printing--it was worth having to reprint a 50th sheet now and then.
We had a 2-tray printer. We used new paper in one tray and already-printed paper in the other.
Possible answer
another possibility
All laser printers fuse at different temps so you do risk damage by reusing paper under certain circumstances. This damage is usually no worse than a repetitive pattern on the paper or black chunks of toner on following prints.
All printer feeding systems are not created equally so while you can get away with reusing the most wrinkled and curled stuff in one printer, another may choke on the slightest curling of an edge.
Reused Paper
Paper works best when it has been in the room for a few hours before being loaded in the printer; this is to be at a more uniform temperature and humidity. When paper has been printed, the amount of moisture in the paper is much less and this makes it prone to curling and also print quality problems.
The paper path of the printer is important, some have a more gentle bending of paper and others have a tight bend. The tighter the bend the more likely the paper will curl.
The enviromental temperature and humidity effect how the paper will move through the printer. The best humidity range is between 25 and 40%, too low and static builds up and the pages stick together; too high and the paper tends to curl. You may notice that printers jam more often when the weather changes or when the HVAC climate controls are changed for the season.
Adjusting to different methods
In today's world, there's so much more technology that will allow you to give up paper - [i][b]if you really want to.[/i][/b] The question is, do you really want to give up paper?
But as far as reducing paper use, I suggest you encourage your fellow journalists NOT to bemoan the demise of the traditional newspaper. Think about the literally TONS of paper wasted, and the tens of thousands of gallons of fuel wasted in production and delivery for a single paper.
It's time to dump paper - it's doable, it just takes a bit of adjusting.
Other ways to save paper too.
RE: HP's kinder, gentler stance toward printer paper
I try to print duplex and/or 2:1 and 4:1 page reduction. When HP's SmartWeb Printing *works*, it can be a wonderful thing.
But the software is huge and bloated and I often give up on it.
Manual duplexing often results in paper jams, which destroy the whole set and require a reprint.
More on paper and paper jams. I buy my white paper by the case. But colored paper I buy by the ream. Office stores stack their paper on edge, vertically, and it permanently distorts / bends the leading edge of the paper, causing - you got it - paper jams. PLEASE, office stores, treat my paper with dignity, and stack it flat.
And HP engineers, could you please make a laser printer that doesn't burn the paper? I use inkjets exclusively, because I don't want my finished product to have a 2-degree curl to it.
Thank you.
RE: HP's kinder, gentler stance toward printer paper
Trust me, you are not alone. The printed document is still very much alive. Industry research indicates workers still prefer to read documents on the printed page. Good thing companies like Xerox are doing great things to preserve trees and the environment:
1. Xerox partners with The Nature Conservancy to advance forest management practices and improve sustainable forest management programs.
2. Xerox created High Yield Business Paper?, the first mechanical paper for digital applications, which uses half the trees of conventional paper.
3. In May of this year, Xerox launched its ColorQube? multifunction printer, which uses the breakthrough technology of solid ink, reduces office waste by 90 percent, and has 10 percent less global warming impact than comparable laser devices.
Check out this site (http://www.xerox.com/about-xerox/environment/enus.html) to learn more about Xerox?s commitment to sustainability.
P.S. Xerox scientists created a reusable paper that self-erases in about 16 to 24 hours and can be used multiple times. It?s still in the research phase, but it?s just another way Xerox is innovating for a more sustainable future (and fulfilling the dreams of amateur sleuths)!