kyunki paper bhi kabhi ped tha!

Just saw another pile of wasted paper on our office printer, prompting me to write this post, which I anyway have been wanting to for some time now.

When email came along, we all not only marveled at the speed with which communication could happen (heck M and me used to send each other 5 looong emails a day at the peak of our pataoing season), but also about the fact that we could now dream of having paperless office.

The files would now be on the computer and you won't have to wonder if you need the box variety or the slim one. Imagine the amount of space it could free up. Imagine the number of trees that could be saved by saving all the paper. We were all happily hoping, weren't we?

Then we realised computers can crash, all the data can get wiped-out, even the back-up can get corrupt and if not termites, virus could eat into out virtual files.

Next, we were filing print-outs of emails and the files are in back in action along with our shortly under-worked printers.

I completely understand the need to have hard copies of records which cannot be left to the vagaries of virtual nature. Heck, even I have 15 different files with faxes and prints of emails that I couldn't "avoid" printing.

But there are things we can do to avoid misuse of paper, especially in office environment. (I doubt lot of us waste lot of paper at home, considering its OUR money we are spending!).

Many times I see just one column of an excel sheet thats printed on one page rendering it useless to the guy who has printed it. The original sheet which is now one column/row less and the other which has one row too many. It makes me so mad to see it. A simple thing to do is to do a print preview before you print and format it so that it fits into one page! I mean that cannot be very difficult, can it?! Sometimes, you just have to change the setting from portrait to landscape and Voila! Computer is a little bit magic! :p

To be even more proactive, please check formatting of your files before sending them across to someone. Just assume that the other person won't take the effort to save paper and take the initiative.

Similar stuff for emails. As a normal netiquette, please check if the mail you are sending isn't a long chain mail with information that DOES NOT need to reach the final recipient. Delete the portion that is NOT relevant before sending the mail. If that hasn't been done by the sender, just make sure you as a recipient check it out before hitting Ctrl+P. A lot of times, the second page will just have the address of the sender. If the main content looks like it will fit in one page click on page 1 of 1 and print.

Check if you can reuse some of the paper. I am so anal about this thing that I actually check for some stupid printing (I find plenty of it) and use it in our fax machine. The fax gets printed on the clean side and a piece of paper that would ordinarily have got wasted gets sorta recycled or at least reused.

Instead of using new and fancy note pads, just ask the house keeping to tear up the waste paper into neat rectangles and staple them to use as note pads which you can use for your simple calculations / to note down phone nos etc in office.

If you have given a print have courtesy to PICK up prints from the printer even if it means hauling your ass 30metres from the cube. We anyway don't get any exercise. It is plain rude to leave piles of paper and making others hunt for their pages in your mess.

Use right sized envelopes to courier your stuff. It's OK to fold your claim into three folds and put it into a regular sized envelope than use a A4 size one because you don't wanna crumple the paper. I mean seriously, as long as you have filled out the form right, they will pass the claim, crumpled or not!

Use tissue paper with care. Whats with using 5 tissues to just dry your hands. If you don't want to use your hanky, use the tissue wisely. Please pull them out carefully too. No one uses the ones that fall around the basin and get wet at the edges even though they are not dirty or unusable.

Don't use paper to mop up things at home esp in your kitchen. Use cloth as much as possible. The way we used to in good old days before paper became fashionable.

But most of all THINK before you print. Print ONLY when you NEED to. Check and format BEFORE hitting the print button. Format documents right when you are the sender. Try to reuse and recycle the paper as much as you can.

We have been consistently screwing the natural balance of earth for a long time and it could soon be too late to make amends. So one step at a time, one paper at a time and perhaps one tree at a time. And if a lot of us do it, we could soon be saving a whole forest! Ok! A small patch of green, hopefully?! :)

And me, I am trying to work up the gumption to say "Wake up guys! Stop wasting SO much paper!"

The word "gumption" taken from Tharini's blog! Check the post out and make your own sentence! I had fun doing it!

And yes remember the title, Kyunki paper bhi kabhi ped tha.