A greener office: eco-logical choices for paper, printers, and power

Home Office Computing, May, 1993 by Steve Morgenstern

Eco-Logical choices For Paper, Printers, and Power

On the face of it, home offices aren't up there with big corporate polluters as defacers of the land and despoilers of the environment. And even though changes in your desktop-publishing procedures will make only modest differences in the larger problem, they are real differences nonetheless.

PAPER TRAINING

Using recycled paper in your office printer is a good idea, but at the same time it's important to select the appropriate paper stock. Some types aren't smooth enough to handle toner well, or worse, they may shed tiny fibers in your printer that, over time, tend to gum up the works. If you have trouble finding what you want at the local stationery store, try the major office-supply catalogs. Paper Direct ([800] 272-7377), a company specializing in desktop-publishing papers, offers several grades of recycled paper. PaperAccess ([800] 727-3701) also has a good stock.

Will you pay more to print on recycled stock? There's no hard-and-fast rule, though you shouldn't be surprised to pay a modest premium.

TONER-CARTRIDGE OPTIONS

Most laser and LED-based printers use one-piece toner cartridges. This is a convenient design, but it also creates bulky, empty cartridges that will only end up ready for a trip to the landfill. And an estimated 11.5 million cartridges were sold last year ! Dataproducts ([800] 232-2141) and Qume's Eco-recycling center ([800] 421-4326) will remanufacture and return cartridges to you, at prices about 25 percent lower than the list price of a new one. Hewlett-Packard ([800] 752-0900) provides a prepaid UPS shipping label inside each toner-cartridge box and dismantles and recycles used cartridges. For every cartridge that's returned to them, the company will split a $1 donation between the Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Fund.

Kyocera recently introduced an alternative solution to the toner-cartridge problem with its Ecosys LED printers. Instead of removing and tossing the empty toner cartridge, you just add more toner, which is priced at a reasonable $39. I still have some reservations about the Ecosys printers. At $2,395 for the FS-1500A (price before options), this model is priced higher than other lasers with

REDUCING ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION

Your computer and peripherals soak up a significant amount of electricity, especially if you leave them on all the time. So you should turn the computer off when you're not using it, right? Well, maybe. For several years I have followed a lively debate over the wisdom of leaving your computer running day and night. Some experts claim that saving wear and tear on the disk drive and power supply, caused by repeatedly starting up the computer, makes leaving the system on a smart strategy. Others say the wear and tear caused by running the computer constantly, makes turning the system off when not in use a better idea.

And what do I say? Help! My compromise solution is to turn the computer on in the morning and leave it running during the day, but I turn the system off at quitting time. During the day, I turn off the monitor when I'm going to be away from the computer for a significant period of time, but I leave the CPU running. From what I've read, the wear-and-tear debate centers on hard-disk drives more than monitors.

As I prepare to send this column to my editor through paperless, energy-efficient electronic mail, I hope all your days are happy Earth Days.

Contributing editor STEVE MORGENSTERN runs a graphic-design and marketing business from his home office on Long Island.