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How to Reuse and Recycle Commercial Prints

Read on and learn some effective ways on how to reuse and recycle your commercial prints to save money and the environment as well.

Author: Brad Kartel
Date: Dec 10, 2011 - 11:39:08 PM

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Commercial printing has grown to be such a flourishing and successful trade, expanding to various countries and even to the different corners of the world. At the same time though it has also proven to be quite a contributor to the paper and ink wastes that are constantly introduced to the environment, raising concerns of different groups and advocates for green commercial printing.

Commercial printers are not entirely to blame, however, and if people want to make a change in the way commercial printing impacts the environment, the initiative must come from the customers themselves. A good way to start is knowing how to properly reuse and recycle the different used publicity materials you have lying around you.

The first thing you have to do is to make a habit of collecting and keeping any and all commercially printed materials that you have already used. This is not a matter of hoarding, but rather a matter of opening the possibility for reusing and recycling these materials. If you do not do this, you would not have anything to reuse or to recycle, after all. Just make sure to store these old prints where they will not be damaged by moisture or by dirt, and make sure to tell people that these papers are not to be thrown in the garbage. It would not do to exert all that effort in saving the prints, only to have someone throw them in bin anyway.

The next thing to greener printing is in separating the reusable prints from the recyclable ones. The difference between the two is basically that reusable prints are those that can be redistributed or reposted as they are because they are still relevant, while recyclable prints are those which no longer has any use other than as raw material for another thing. Generally, reusing is a much simpler and easier process, so keep this in mind the next time you order some prints and make sure to choose designs, slogans, and marketing strategy that you can use over and over again without becoming boring and dull. As for recycling, you could come up with your own ways to make something out of the papers you have collected, or you could simply hand them over to the recycler nearest you.

Finally, if at some point you can no longer reuse or recycle any of the materials you have on hand, make sure that you dispose of them properly. You are adding to the garbage content of the world, after all, so the least you can do is to be neat and orderly in throwing away your trash.

“Reduce, reuse, and recycle” has been a very well-known slogan on environmental awareness for a long time now, and it is high time that businesses and companies start to implement this with their commercial printing. It is a simple thing to reduce the number of prints being produced by your commercial printer, to reuse old posters and flyers that are still relevant, and to recycle all the paper that can still be salvaged. It is only a question of initiative.

Brad Kartel is a marketing executive whose passion is helping business owners build their campaign through acquiring services from a commercial printer. Learn more about commercial printing.

View all articles by Brad Kartel

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