The Green Writer
May 5, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Writing Tips
by Robin Shreeves
Many of us who write do it from home. That’s good in the whole green scheme of things. Telecommuting is certainly an eco-friendly way to work. But, I bet most of us didn’t choose writing because it’s eco-friendly. Most likely, we unintentionally chose a job that leans towards being green.
As writers, though, there are many things we can do intentionally to be more green. Let’s take a look at our offices (in whatever form they may take). What can we do to leave less of an environmental impact as we go about our daily business?
Paper
- Use both sides of the paper. As writers we print a lot – especially if we need to print to proofread. Much of what we print ends up getting tossed quickly. By printing on both sides of the paper, you’ll save a few trees.
- Look for sources of paper to reuse. If you’ve got kids you can use the announcements sent home from school, the back of many of their homework sheets, the lunch menus at the end of the month – all sorts of paper that has only been used on one side comes home with them. You probably also get lots of junk mail that can be used in you printer.
- Recycle every scrap. Keep a recycling container right next to your trash can. After you’ve used both sides of a piece of paper, recycle it.
- Buy the best recycled paper products you can afford. 100% recycled paper is very expensive. Not many of us are willing to put out that kind of money. But buying paper products that use even 10% post consumer content can make an environmental impact.
Ink
I’ve already mentioned that as writers we’re going to print things. But we can use ink more wisely if we try.
- Only print when really necessary.
- Try taking your empty cartridges to be refilled instead of buying brand new ones. I must admit, I did try this once and I was very disappointed with the results. But it may have just been a case of the person who refilled them not knowing what she was doing.
- When you are done with your cartridges, recycle them. My cartridges from HP come with postage paid envelopes to make this easy. There are also plenty of places that take your cartridges and use them for fundraisers.
Electronics
E-waste (electronic waste) is becoming a big problem. Technology is improving so quickly and we’re constantly trading up for the next bigger (or smaller), better thing.
- Do not throw your old electronic equipment in the trash. Donate it for a tax write off. Give it to someone you know might like it. Freecycle it. Take it to your county’s e-waste disposal site. Just make sure that it does not end up in a landfill.
- Think before you buy. Do you really need a new monitor, cell phone, printer or other piece of office equipment or do you just want something with more bells and whistles? There is a time when you need to buy new equipment, but there’s also a time when you really don’t need to.
- Turn off and unplug when not in use. Power down at night. Unplug cell phone chargers and other cords that draw energy even when not in use.
Other Areas
- Throw open the blinds and shades and work with the lights turned off on sunny days. Your monitor will probably like it.
- Get a stapleless stapler.
- Switch your light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs in your office (heck, go ahead, do you whole house!)
- Borrow or buy used books. Writers are usually readers, but our books don’t have to be brand spanking new, do they?
- Need a new piece of furniture? Consider finding it at a yard sale, thrift store or on the freecyle boards.
What other ideas to you have for writers to be more eco-friendly?
Robin Shreeves spends a great deal of her professional time writing about green living. She gives practical how to/why to advice for those trying to be greener on her blog A Little Greener Every Day. She also writes a column, “Green Like Me” for Primal Parenting magazine and is a regular contributor to both the Naturally Savvy and The Lohasian blogs.
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Actually, the “green-ness” was a factor in my decision to work from home. One thing was I saw, aside from commuting, how much waste I ended up generating with to-go meals, or meals in restaurants that use disposable table settings.
The one thing that bothers me about this whole “It’s keen to be green” thing is its longevity. Points Robin makes about using both sides of the paper, reusing paper, etc. were things my Mom taught me. However, when she was doing it, no one knew eco-friendly from a hole in the wall. It was a thrifty way for people without a lot of money (read immigrants) to live.
We had the ecology thing of the late 60s and 70s when the EPA wss born. Then the cycle turned and the fad went the way of leisure suits and Disco balls.
Now the pendulum has swung back because well, the planet is in serious trouble. However, cynic that I am, I don’t know if people are really more dedicated to conservation than they were in the past, or it’s just a matter of time until the pendulum swings back the other way.
@Maria E. I like to think that by educating people you can convert them into being green forever.
I grew up in the 70’s – no one recycled then except for my parents. We spent weekends hiking along the Appalachian Trail and picking up debris and our vacations camping – and picking up after other campers. I knew all about saving water, not polluting and not wasting energy. Not because of the EPA but because for my family it was a way of life.
I know how to do all the green stuff because that’s how I was raised, not because it’s what’s trendy. I would like to think that if we start drilling this stuff into our kids now, and start making it a way of life forever, it doesn’t have to be trendy.
If you’re truly concerned with being green, don’t write for anyone who publishes physical entities.
Your article in a major daily is printed on trees, after all.
I guess the greenest writers are those who e-publish, and turn the brightness down really low on their monitors.
@ Jennifer: Greenness is a nice side effect of working from home, but so is having an extra x number of hours each day to spend as you like, rather than sitting in traffic or on the commute.
@ Deb – As I said, I am a natural born cynic. I do think you’re right that you gotta get’em while they’re young. And I think some people will do that. However, if history is correct, I don’t think the majority of people will make a concerted effort over the long term even though they know what’s at stake.
P.S. This is one time I hope with all my heart I’m proven wrong.
@Adam – I must be the greenest writer of all, because I don’t even turn on my printer any more.
@Maria – I understand your skepticism. I’m skeptical about the longevity of the current environmental awareness, too, but I truly feel called to write and educate on this topic.
Oh, and I have to print. I simply cannot catch all my typos on screen.
@Adam -I’m not sure if you’re joking or not. But if you’re not, then I would say if you are truly, truly concerned with being green, turn off your computer right now!
As writers there is a slim to none chance that we aren’t going to consume some paper. But paper is a renewable source and if used wisely and efficiently, I’m okay with using it.
It would be good for us, however, to encourage the print publications we do write for to use recycled paper. The one publication that I write a column for uses recycled paper and environmentally friendly printing processes.
Deb- Thanks for the opportunity to guest post!
@Robin – You know you’re right about everything you say in your post. I applaud your effort to try and turn things around. Maybe if enough people shout, others will start to hear. Who knows, it could happen.
Hey guys, my old MacBook died a few months back, and I have no idea what to do with it. I salvaged some (but sadly, not all) of the hard drive, so at this point I just want to dispose of it in the best way possible. Any ideas?
@ Marie – Staples is still supposedly taking old hardware to be recycled free of charge. Their ad said all you have to do is bring it to the store.
Hi! I, like many, already do all this ’stuff’!
What is a stapleless stapler though??
Marie – if you dont have a Staples nearby, you can also get in touch with a local environmental group … I am sure they would have some ideas for you.
Thanks, Maria E and Scribette. Hopefully Staples will allow me to lay my trusty’ ol friend to rest!
Marie, look around your town’s website or other nearby towns if you live someplace small. In NYC they have days at least twice a year where you can bring old computers and cell phones to be picked up for recycling. Before you do anything with your computer, though, you might want to take out your hard drive and smash it up a bit.
We generate a lot of paper waste, unfortunately. Just recently we started our own recycling project to reduce the amount of our trash that goes to the dump. Just trying to do our part.
As for paper recycling, a lot of schools have dropoffs, and they get a few bucks per ton.
Hi Robin,
Thanks for the ideas — and the focus on green. I picked up a pointer or two.
And one to pass on — my printer allows me to set up profiles, and for my default I have a “draft” that has the ink intensity set pretty light. I use it most of time time, particularly when I’m looking at layouts and page breaks. I also have stopped saving paper copies of most things — I PDF my assignments after submitting them and keep my files on the computer.
As a writer, I struggle with the suggestion to buy used books or go to the library. It’s counterproductive and hurts the opportunity for new writers to get published.
So I’ll buy new books. On the other hand, I make up for that because not only do I work from home (no commute), my husband rides his bike to work every day. We put less than 9,000 miles on our cars combined last year.
There is a program on the web (free to download) called “Green Print” which helps prevent extra pages with little or no content from going through your printer.
You know, like when you print a webpage and because it’s too wide to fit on your screen you end up with 27 pages of a vertical line running from top to bottom, with no words.
Sue – I’m with you on the book thing. I try to do everything as greenly as possible (including working from home), but, as a writer, I always feel guilty buying used books b/c I want to support my fellow starving artists. Is buying from a discounted seller (like Daedalus in maryland [www.salebooks.com])a good middle ground? Does anyone know if authors still make money off sales like that?
@Sue – Good point about the books, and if it something you feel strongly about, then keep buying them. I think that most of us have areas in our life that we are not willing to budge on so we try extra hard in other areas to help it even out. I suppose it’s our personal way of carbon offsetting.
@Adam – I’ll have to checkout Green Print. I try to remember to not hit the general print button but to tell my printer to print page one only so I can avoid unwanted stray pages, but this program sounds like it could help in other areas. Do you use it?
I’m a big believer in “every little bit helps” so I’m happy that you wrote this post Robin.
I was laughing through Marie E’s first comment because I’m working on a blog post to that very effect–how my grandparents lived “green” and taught me to do so as well because they had to! Now it makes it all that much easier for me to do things like use both sides of the paper and every scrap from junk mail, etc., because that’s just how I grew up.
Those life lessons from my grandparents just keep on givin’
LOve this post! As a freelance art director and practitioner of shamanism my creative work has leaned towards green clients and I follow many of your suggestions above while working at home.
Thx for spreading the green word(s).
@Adam – Actually, computers aren’t too terribly green. Millions of gallons of water are polluted in the creation and cooling of chips. And there are other serious issues concerning the mining of minerals for key components.
And all this data we’re sending across the net is stored somewhere, namely electricity guzzling servers.
I don’t know which is worse honestly.
I have donated a computer to our local educational support unit for a total tax write-off. I have also purchased cartridge refill kits online. Once in a while, I’ve just had to buy a new cartridge because I guess I wore it out with all the refilling! But Dell has a little envelope for sending back used cartridges.
I also leave my color cartridge empty. I don’t print anything in color. If I need the rare color printed item, I just go a Office Max or something. I do have to print things off at times, but I rarely have to send a hard copy of anything. I probably print more coloring pages for my kids than I print for my writing work.
@Scribette,
I just found out what a stapleless stapler is! It’s a little gizmo punches a little hole through your pages and it somehow folds the little flaps together to make it secure. Sounds sophisticated but neat.
And, of course, before you recycle or donate your old computers, wipe the hard drive. You can delete stuff but it’s still on there. Same for your cell phones — empty out your personal information. Some police depts collect used cell phones for battered women’s shelters; other organizations collect them for soldiers serving overseas. Your local community center might be able to use your old computer, especially if it’s only a couple of years old.
Good post!
Don’t use paper, period.
And if you do, have a box nearby. When you’re done with your paper, let the kids use it for coloring.