Green Office Supplies

[susan silva]

First, do you order your office's supplies?  If so, do you order green or recycled products?  If you don't why not....price... quality...  Finally, if you do order green products, what are they? 

[gee4]

Think we had something similar to this previously -

http://www.deskdemon.com/dnet/index.php?topic=8670.0

[Atlanta Z3]

Our building is light green, things like aerators on the faucets to control water use, recycle bins in break rooms, green day events to turn in computer equipment, lights automatically turn off if no moment in the room (which can get annoying or amusing for people who don't move much at their desk).  Yes, I order some of the supplies and where I can I buy recycled, printers have to be out of warranty to used recycled ink.  File folders and such if the cost is not too much more I will order recycled.  Copy paper not so much as the paper is usually not white enough.  Our storage company informed us that when we order boxes shredded they have their own paper mill that they process the shred through.

Now my dear mother (a depression era baby) can recycle everything from the plastic bag the newspaper comes in to the Styrofoam tray her meat comes on from the grocery (ick my book!)  She never buys scrap or note paper as envelopes recycled are for grocery or to do lists.  Have you heard of Italian Tupperware – it’s plastic yogurt containers and the like.

[jennika]

That link is FIVE years old Gee and doesn't really ask the same thing at all.   I order recycled products when they don't cost a ton more.   We do get recycled paper but I price out folders, post its, pencils.  It goes most important decent price, then green if a good price, then normal supplies.

[gee4]

I think it does Jennika - is your office green?

[JessW]

I agree with Gee.  Mentioning previous similar questions allows newbies to see what veterans used to do and allows everyone to compare how they/their companies have changed since the question was last asked.

I certainly find it interesting to see the changes.

As for now, there is a company policy to recycle however quite a few people here are too lazy to, for instance, put a piece of paper in the recycle/confidential bins!

[gee4]

Well Jess funny you mention that.  We had all bins removed from our desks about a year ago which I think I did mention in another posting.

The only bins we have now are recycling bins which are situated at different points in each building, but no bins at our desks.

I think all companies now aim to be green -

- turning off lights when not required
- shredding/recycling paper
- recycling cartridges for printers/fax machines
- removing people from mailing lists
- car pooling
- cycling to work

Unfortunately employees do not have control over office heating/aircon but enough said about that one.  As for stationery, we use what is ordered in by the buyers, but again do not have control standard stock items.

I don't think much has changed in the past 5 years.

[Sunflower]

If I need to order stationery for myself, I always look at the green options - with price being the most important consideration. If there is not much in price between different items, I will order the green choice and see what quality is like. Some pens I had were very cheap and wrote beautifully and notepads are fine, but I do find that cheaper copier paper can jam my printer.

However, my boss has very high standards and likes sleek modern (non-greenish looking) items - especially pens and folders when meeting senior executives, customers, etc. So I will contact my Account Manager for our stationery supplier as he is very helpful and knowledgeable and he will always let me have a sample if I am unsure of quality.

[Chatham Lady]

I order stationery but don't control the budget.  I've tried getting in recycled notepads but I could not find anything of a suitable quality to satisfy everyone's tastes.  There is recycled paper for general copying, fax machine etc and better paper for other printing.  All the printer/copier toners are recycled and returned to the stationery supplier (free service  ).

We have to recycle as much as we can - I work in the waste management industry and it's almost engrained in us to do this!  Everyone has their own mini recycle bin for paper and card.  You are also encouraged to double side printing/copying as much as possible.  We have separate bins outside for co-mingled dry and clean products (plastic, paper and cardboard) and another general bin for kitchen waste etc. 

The building is not that eco-friendly due to its design but lights, etc are kept switched off as much as possible, heating and air-con etc are monitored and there's heat sensitive lighting in the washrooms.

[Katie G]

We are limited to a corporately-approved office supply list, most of which consists of recycled materials.  Most serve the purpose just fine with one glaring exception.  Unfortunately, the recycled copy paper is not well liked by our big networked copier/printer, and results in paper jams at least once or twice a day.  And we have no say in the selection of the machine, either.  The leases are negotiated for the entire organization through purchasing so we're stuck with what they pick.