Benefits of recycled printer paper in the workplace

Is corporate sustainability important to your company? If the answer is yes, (and it should be) you’re already off to a great start and probably a couple of steps ahead of your competitors. Lots of smart companies are taking “green” initiatives more seriously, and it’s paying off—for our environment and their bottom line. This business approach creates long-term consumer and employee value. “Going green” makes employees proud to represent a socially responsible company and consumers happy to shop the brand.

How many trees does recycled paper save?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average office worker in the U.S. uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year. That’s 4 million tons of copy paper used annually.

For every 20 cases of recycled paper substituted for non-recycled paper, you save 17 trees, 390 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4,100 kWh of energy. You eliminate 60 pounds of air-polluting emissions and save 8 cubic feet of landfill space, as noted by the Buy Recycled Business Alliance of the National Recycling Coalition. Let’s break that down:

How many sheets of paper are in a ream of paper?

There are 500 sheets of paper in one paper ream. According to the EPA, that means every employee goes through at least 20 reams of paper per year.

How many reams of paper are in a case?

There are 10 reams of paper in a case. So you can estimate each employee will go through at least 2 cases of paper per year. A single case of recycled printer paper (or 5 employee’s yearly paper usage) has the power to save 85 trees per year!

Making saving trees your business

Even small businesses can make a huge impact just by switching to recycled printer paper. Say a company has 10 employees, that’s 17 trees saved in a year.

Think about that, for just a few dollars more than what you’re already paying for supplies you order year in and year out, you could be saving thousands of trees. A small business with less than 500 employees has the potential to save 8,843 trees per year just by switching to recycled paper.

Post-consumer recycled content definition

Recycled Paper is made from “post-consumer content” aka recycled paper products. The higher the percentage of post-consumer content listed the better for the environment your paper purchase is. For instance, you can buy 100% recycled paper for the maximum impact or look for a lesser percent from recycled content. Always look for at least 30% post-consumer content. Buy what works for your company and your budget, the higher the post-consumer content, the higher the price point.

Other ways to go green at work

If you’re interested in learning more about how to go green at work, learn more about our Ink & Toner Cartridge Recycling Program. It’s FREE to recycle your used ink and toner cartridges, plus you can earn QuillCash for every new ink or toner cartridge you buy. For more tips on going green at work check out our blog post: 7 Eco-friendly office ideas.