Comments on: The Paperless Home http://printceo.com/2008/02/the-paperless-home Printing Industry News and Opinion Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:10:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Eric http://printceo.com/2008/02/the-paperless-home/comment-page-1#comment-4641 Eric Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:55:25 +0000 http://printceoblog.com/2008/02/the-paperless-home#comment-4641 "Printed materials once printed do not require continuous power to keep them available." Yeah, but can you imagine the overhead in housing costs alone trying to print and file Google? ...I'm still a bit far off. My wife won't let me toss the phonebooks even though I haven't used one in like 3 years! “Printed materials once printed do not require continuous power to keep them available.”

Yeah, but can you imagine the overhead in housing costs alone trying to print and file Google?

…I’m still a bit far off. My wife won’t let me toss the phonebooks even though I haven’t used one in like 3 years!

]]> By: Dr Joe http://printceo.com/2008/02/the-paperless-home/comment-page-1#comment-4638 Dr Joe Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:30:31 +0000 http://printceoblog.com/2008/02/the-paperless-home#comment-4638 Savings from being paperless are essentially a fallacy. There was a study a couple of years ago that I cited in my column about e-paper in newspapers, which estimated the total cost of production of a paper-based newspaper vs. an electronic one, and the paper-based used less energy in its entire lifecycle. Among the biggest problems is that people have not connected their home energy consumption with their use of electronics. Keeping data active, for Internet access, for example, requires that servers always be on. In the U.S., most electrical consumption is from coal-based generation, which despite its great strides in cleanliness, is still electrical generation consumed just in case someone decides to access a file. Printed materials once printed do not require continuous power to keep them available. Keep the paper; use less. It's easier to recycle paper than computer parts and batteries. Savings from being paperless are essentially a fallacy. There was a study a couple of years ago that I cited in my column about e-paper in newspapers, which estimated the total cost of production of a paper-based newspaper vs. an electronic one, and the paper-based used less energy in its entire lifecycle.

Among the biggest problems is that people have not connected their home energy consumption with their use of electronics. Keeping data active, for Internet access, for example, requires that servers always be on. In the U.S., most electrical consumption is from coal-based generation, which despite its great strides in cleanliness, is still electrical generation consumed just in case someone decides to access a file.

Printed materials once printed do not require continuous power to keep them available. Keep the paper; use less. It’s easier to recycle paper than computer parts and batteries.

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