How to print less and waste less
By Nasir Uddin Shamim · Founder, PrintxPDF
Updated 2026-08-30 · 8 min read
Short answer: The largest single win is changing your printer defaults to duplex and greyscale, because it applies to every job without anyone remembering. After that, look at print preview before every job, print page ranges rather than whole documents, and give yourself a PDF-first folder that you print from only after 24 hours.
Most printing waste is not a decision. It is a default nobody changed, a preview nobody opened, and a stack at a shared printer nobody collected. Ten habits, ordered by saving against effort.
1. Change the defaults once
The highest-leverage item here, because it works on the days you are not thinking about it. Set duplex, greyscale and draft as printer defaults in the operating system, not per job.
- Windows Settings → Printers & scanners → your printer → Printing preferences. Set two-sided, black-ink-only and draft quality. Apply.
- macOS Open any print dialog, set two-sided, black and white and draft, then choose Save Current Settings as Preset, name it, and set it as the default preset.
- Shared office printers Ask whoever manages the queue to set server-side defaults. One change beats a memo to fifty people, and it survives new laptops.
- Leave the override obvious Full colour and best quality are still one dialog away. You are changing the path of least resistance, not removing an option.
2. Open print preview every single time
Preview is where you find the eleven-page email thread, the blank final sheet, the appendix you did not want and the page about to print as a black rectangle. Three seconds, and it stops five to ten percent of jobs entirely.
3. Print ranges, not documents
Almost nobody needs all forty pages. Find the pages that carry what you want and type 12-15. If the document recurs, delete the dead pages once and keep the short version.
Cut the appendices and cover sheets out of a document you print regularly.
4. Work PDF-first, with a 24-hour rule
Save to PDF, put it in a folder called "to print", and revisit tomorrow. Much of what you were certain you needed on paper was a passing impulse. What survives 24 hours is worth a sheet; the rest stays searchable and weightless. Paper versus PDF covers the call.
Read it on screen first. Most documents never need to leave the file.
5. Print in batches
One job of forty pages beats ten of four: no banner sheets between jobs, one trip, nothing left in the tray. Merge a reading list or a set of reports into one file and print once.
6. Never bin a cartridge
Every major manufacturer runs a free prepaid take-back scheme: HP Planet Partners, and equivalents from Canon, Epson and Brother. Office supply chains take them in store. Widely cited estimates put hundreds of millions of cartridges in landfill each year. The programme costs you an envelope.
7. Buy the right paper, not the most virtuous-sounding one
| Paper | Typical weight | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard office white | 80gsm | Everything | Show-through when you duplex dense text |
| Lightweight | 70-75gsm | Internal drafts, high volume | Jams in older printers. Do not duplex it |
| Duplex-friendly | 90-100gsm | Double-sided reports and handouts | Costs more per sheet, but you buy half as many |
| 100% post-consumer recycled | 80gsm | Almost all internal printing | Lower brightness, around 92 ISO against 96. Fine for text, dull for photographs |
| FSC-certified virgin | 80gsm | Client-facing documents | Certification is about forestry practice, not about using less paper |
Paper choices for everyday printing.
Note: The arithmetic favours using less over buying better. Commonly cited estimates put one A4 sheet at several litres of water and a few grams of carbon dioxide. Halving your volume beats upgrading the paper you print twice as much of.
8. Fix the shared-printer problem
Every office has a tray of abandoned printouts: jobs sent twice, sent to the wrong floor, or forgotten. Secure release, where the job prints only when you tap a badge at the device, typically removes a tenth to a fifth of the volume, because accidental jobs expire. Failing that, put a recycling tray beside the printer.
9. Reuse the single-sided misprints
Keep a tray of one-sided paper for drafts and notes. It costs nothing, uses paper already made, and is the only step here your printer need not know about.
10. Cut the clutter before it reaches the paper
Web pages are the worst offenders: a 600-word article routinely prints as nine sheets of navigation, adverts and related-story grids. Cleaned, it is two. See printing a web page without ads, or use the web page printer.
The maths, on a real office
Twenty people printing thirty pages each on a working day is 600 a day and roughly 150,000 a year. At an all-in 3.5 cents a page, about $5,250 before the printer lease.
| Change | What it removes | Annual effect |
|---|---|---|
| Duplex by default | Half the sheets | 75,000 sheets, about 150 reams and 375kg of paper |
| Greyscale by default | Colour on documents that never needed it | Often the largest single line item on a colour device |
| Draft quality for internal work | Roughly a third of the toner | A few hundred dollars of consumables |
| Print preview before every job | 5-10% of jobs never sent | 7,500 to 15,000 pages |
| Secure release at shared printers | Abandoned and duplicate jobs | 10-20% of volume at a busy device |
| Page ranges instead of whole documents | The pages nobody reads | Highly variable, and frequently the biggest win of all |
Order-of-magnitude effects on 150,000 pages a year.
Note the shape of that table: every large number comes from a default or a habit, not a product. You do not need a new printer to halve your printing.
The one-page version
- Set duplex, greyscale and draft as your printer defaults today.
- Open print preview before every job, without exception.
- Print page ranges, never whole documents by reflex.
- Save to PDF first and print tomorrow, if you still want to.
- Clean web pages before printing them.
- Batch small jobs into one.
- Buy 90gsm if you duplex, recycled 80gsm if you do not.
- Post every empty cartridge back on the free scheme.
- Keep a scrap tray of one-sided misprints.
- Clear the abandoned-printouts tray weekly and recycle it.
The detail behind each of these lives in saving ink, printing double-sided and fitting more on a page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single biggest way to reduce printing waste?
Setting duplex and greyscale as the printer defaults in the operating system rather than choosing them per job. It halves paper immediately and applies to everyone and every application without anybody having to remember.
Is recycled paper worse for my printer?
Modern 80gsm post-consumer recycled paper runs fine in laser and inkjet printers. It is slightly less bright, around 92 ISO against 96, which is invisible on text and noticeable on photographs. Very cheap recycled stock can shed more dust, so buy a known brand.
Where can I recycle printer cartridges?
Every major manufacturer runs a free prepaid take-back programme, including HP Planet Partners and equivalents from Canon, Epson and Brother. Large office supply retailers also accept them in store, sometimes for a small store credit.
What does one printed page actually cost?
Roughly 2.5 to 5 cents all in on a mono laser, and 15 to 25 cents on an inkjet printing colour with manufacturer cartridges. Refillable tank printers get under a cent. Add about a cent per sheet for paper on top of the ink or toner.
Is it always greener to read on screen than to print?
Usually, but not always. A page you read once on a device you already own is greener than a printed sheet. A long document you would otherwise read on a laptop for three hours is closer to a draw. The clear waste is the printout nobody reads.