Stop the Waste: Duplex
It’s hard to break the habit of one-sided copying, but some companies and universities are trying to end this wasteful practice by making duplexing easier. In fact, they are asking their in-plants to set all copiers and multi-function printers to duplex mode by default. Users are allowed to override this to print single-sided copies if necessary, with instructions posted telling them how to do it. Though some may worry about a revolt, this hasn’t been the case, say managers who have made the change.
“Since this process was strongly promoted by our sustainability department and student groups, and fully supported by the administration...there was no real backlash,” notes Chris Taylor, assistant director of Campus Services at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine.
He acknowledges that this slows down the machine slightly, but most people don’t notice or they just accept it as the price to pay for doing the right thing.
At the University of North Carolina-Wilmington last fall, all printers in the student lab were set to duplex printing by default.
“Overall, the transition to duplex printing went very smoothly with our students,” reports Don Harty, assistant director of campus services, though this yielded only a 30 percent reduction in paper, he adds. He had expected more savings.
As for all those sheets already printed on just one side, some in-plants are taking steps to reuse them. At California State University-Chico, Printing Service invites customers to bring in paper that was printed on only one side. The shop pads it, cuts it and places these scratch pads in a bin, for anyone to take.
- People:
- Chris Taylor
- Don Harty
- Places:
- Brunswick, Maine
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
