REDUCE, REUSE, and if you must, recycle

Recycling is not the end-all, be-all in sustainable consuming.

According to Earth911:
- a trillion sheets of paper are tossed within a day of being printed, equating to 90 million trees even if all that paper were 30% post-consumer recycled paper
- reducing the margins from 1.5-inches to 1-inch can save the average office worker 475 pages a year, even more if you can reduce your margins to 0.75-inch

Consider these three simple questions each time you prepare to click Control-P:

• Do I need to keep this for more than a few hours or days?
• Does this really require a paper copy, or can it stay on my hard drive?
• Has this already been printed by someone else?

Also please consider adding a footnote to your emails encouraging others to kick their printing habit. Here is some simple sample text:
Please consider the environment before printing this page.

And here's an idea of something to print on the back of that page you just printed and no longer need: a suggestion card to leave with your bill at your favorite restaurant to encourage them to "go green": http://www.dinegreen.com/images/suggestioncards.pdf