Choosing Stationery for An Eco-Friendly Office

It seems like you can't swing a hippie these days without hitting something that is proclaimed to be eco-friendly. What exactly does eco-friendly even mean? Eco-friendly is a term that was coined a few years ago and is attached to any good, service, law or guideline that proclaims to be not harmful to the earth. It's pretty easy to figure out why we would want to be kind to the earth and how to do that; turn off lights when not using them, conserve water, recycle office stationery, ride a bike instead of driving. These are easy ways, except riding a bike maybe, for all of us to do our part towards becoming eco-friendly. These tips can be implemented at home as well as the office.

Recycling office stationery is a big help to the environment. Office stationery makes up about 70% of total paper recycled. That is huge. Environmentalists suggest offices not only recycle their paper, but that they also use stationery that has been recycled. This is better for the earth not only because it means fewer trees need to be chopped down, but also because when white paper is made it is whitened by the use of chlorine. Chlorine is a toxic substance and the less it is used the better the environment, or so is the thought process.

Going paperless all together is also an option though it is not always possible. Some things to remember if your office is thinking about becoming more eco-friendly:

• When purchasing office stationery look for and buy the ones that have the highest percentage of post-consumer content.
• Print on both sides of the paper if and when you can.
• If your office ships packages, reuse boxes.

If you want to get extreme about getting eco-friendly with your stationery supplies, you don’t have to look further than the internet to find options that are so extreme they seem made up, but I assure you, they are real. Bamboo paper contains no trees whatsoever. It is a bit heavier than regular paper and it is beige but unless you look very closely and see the bamboo fibers you cannot tell that it is 100% bamboo. Elephant dung paper is something that exists and is available. This paper is textured and needs to be fed into a printer by hand. There is something so passive-aggressive about using paper made from dung. Using brown paper that has been recycled and has not been bleached at all is another way for you to be more earth friendly.

Being eco-friendly doesn’t have to stop at paper. Stationery supplies including biodegradable pens made from cornstarch as well as pens and pencils made from recycled paper are also available and help your office to be ecologically minded.

If you have the internet, and obviously you do or you wouldn’t be reading this, do a search for ‘eco-friendly stationery suppliers’. It’ll do your office a world of good.