Eco-Friendly Supplies:  How to know which ones can make the most of your printing applications

As more sustainable supplies become available, it’s important to learn which ones can make the greatest impact on your printing applications.

The New Year often represents a fresh start – and most everyone is looking for a VERY fresh start after the year we just had, am I right?

Fresh start means kicking bad habits to the curb, getting more exercise, eating right and trying to minimize impact on the planet.  Although it’s a popular thing to do on a personal level, it’s more important than ever now that many people are converging their workspace with their personal space. But even for those who are doing the heavy lifting in the office, at the plant, and out in the warehouse (thank you, by the way), there’s a benefit to minimizing waste and being more conscientious about how we operate on a day-to-day basis. Here are a few ways that businesses are streamlining and trimming expenses: 

Ditching manual processes

This is a huge effort; fortunately businesses of all shapes and sizing are doing their part to eliminate paper-based processes and rely more heavily on technology.  From point-of-sale, to food and beverage manufacturers as well as field service reps, automating processes is extremely beneficial; not only from a ‘reduction of waste’ standpoint, but in time savings and increased accuracy.  Take barcoding or RFID technology, for example.  It shortens the search (high and low) for inventory materials, or spending time trying to quickly enter data in the computer before the carrier arrives to pick up an order. Simply doing it from your mobile computer or tablet, or scan a barcode from your handheld scanner. For the field workforce it’s even more fruitful with the ability to use a mobile computer to check inventory levels, review order history or communicate quickly with the office or a customer.

Maximizing time on the road

Speaking of the field workforce, moving from one location to the next is more efficient with GPS.  For DSD drivers, customer orders are fulfilled more quickly and when there’s a drop-in order or last minute change, it’s simple enough to re-route the day’s plan instead of backtracking to get everything done on time.  And with most industrial devices, GPS is a standard app — decreasing the number of devices your employees have to juggle on the road.

Printing efficiency

Even on-demand printing is quickly becoming the standard, with printers that offer network security, barcode verification and intuitive operation. The use of genuine, approved supplies is an important step in increasing efficiency too since it helps your printer perform better and last longer without having to worry about costly repairs.

So how can we continue improving the efficiency of operations without enlarging our footprint? One way is to seek out environmentally friendly products.  From packing material and recycled cardboard to media supplies, the availability of these products is steadily increasing.

This blog article from Zebra Technologies highlights their desire to help organizations reduce waste in everyday operations. They are working aggressively to design and develop more environmentally sustainable labels (including RFID inlay options) for desktop, industrial and mobile printing applications and they have some solid tips and suggestions that you can take action on right now.

So take a read and let us know what you’re doing to fight the good fight.  And if you’re looking to make sustainable media and other supplies a bigger part of your green initiatve, we can help.

Until then, keep tossing the toxins and looking for ways to make the Earth a better, more beautiful place.

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Phone (423) 855-1822 | Fax (423) 499-6317

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