Recycled Printing Paper

Do you use recycled printing paper? If not, why not? I had to take a run out to our local Staples store last night, to pick up a couple of reams of paper and a new toner cartridge for the trusty old LaserJet. It took a good bit of browsing in the paper aisle before I pulled two reams of Staples 100% recycled printing paper off the shelf.

Being the lifelong recovering print designer, I’ve always had a weakness for quality paper. I grew up in the biz when recycled printing paper and desktop publishing were just taking off. Back in the day, my corporate clients would specifically request that we not only use recycled paper, but that we include a little bug or blurb advertising that fact, tucked away on the back page.

While recycled printing paper is the norm these days, it seems odd that there aren’t more recycled choices available in the big box stores. I spent a good bit of time looking at the many flavors of official HP printing paper, but I couldn’t find any HP recycled printing paper on display at this particular office supply store. (HP does offer a 30% recycled … it just wasn’t on the shelves.) And I looked at the premium brands, including HammerMill, but I couldn’t find any other 100% recycled paper.

Why don’t we see more 100% recycled printing paper in the office supply stores? Why don’t those stores routinely offer these products as loss leaders? Staples is to be commended for offering a 100% recycled house brand paper. But a company with the clout of Staples could do even more.

Staples (or their competition, for that matter) could make a big contribution to the country and to the communities where they do business with a simple marketing move. Sell 100% recycled paper at the same cost as non-recycled. This would bring more customers into the store and trigger a small tipping point.

[tags]recycled printing paper[/tags]