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Printing is SO overrated.
How many of us print unnecessary and superfluous Internet pages and documents countless times a day?
In addition to the data you see in the image to the right, try these statistics on for size too:
- If you printed the Internet, it would be a book 1.2 billion pounds and 10,000 feet tall…
- …It would require 45 million ink cartridges for a total of half a million liters of ink, which if that were fuel, would power a 747 for 18,000 miles.
- …You would need enough paper to cover half of Long Island, which is about 700 square miles.
- …And you would sacrifice 40,000 trees, which is almost twice as many trees as there are in Central Park.
Wow. So how does hitting that print button look now?
How To Print To PDFs
One of my favorite tricks for saving both paper and ink is to virtually print a page to a .pdf.
If you’re a Mac user: OS X has the feature built in to your print options.
If you’re a PCer: Check out the awesome freeware PDF Writer for a full feature set or doPDF for limited functionality but enough useful options that should satisfy the average user’s needs.
You are going to be amazed at how much paper that one little trick is going to save you!!!
More Tips For Going Paperless
- Go Paperless: A Process For Going Digital In 10 Minutes A Day
- 5 Easy Steps To Going (Almost) Paperless
- Stop Printing And Enjoy The Digital Life
- 6 Expert Tips For Going Paperless
Image and statistics from Cartridge Save, via Neat O Rama.
I think every little step toward living green is an awesome one… but eco-snobbery sucks! My goal is to help newbies learn the most important steps toward living green — individually and collectively. Personally, I strive to have as little impact as possible on Planet Earth while I'm here.
