Choosing the best eco-friendly printer can be difficult, this guide will help you to identify the most important features to look out for when choosing an eco-friendly printer for the home or office.
What Constitutes an Eco-friendly Printer?
An eco-friendly printer allows users to produce high quality printed materials whilst minimising impact on the environment.
Eco-friendly printers include an array of environmentally sustainable features to deliver a printing experience that works to minimise carbon footprints.
With sustainability features ranging from heat-free printing technology to the use of recycled paper, an eco-friendly printer can help users to reach sustainability goals without compromising on quality.
Why is sustainability so important for modern businesses?
As the issues of climate change and the preservation of natural resources become increasingly prevalent, sustainability has never been more important for modern businesses.
With businesses increasingly scrutinised regarding sustainability, an eco-friendly printer can help modern businesses to reduce their environmental impacts and achieve sustainability goals.
With printer manufacturers constantly innovating to produce environmentally conscious products, modern businesses have never had more options available to ensure a sustainable printing solution.
What are the benefits of using an eco-friendly printer?
The benefits of using an eco-friendly printer are numerous, aside from lowering carbon footprints, an eco-friendly printer can help users to reduce energy bills and lower overall printing costs.
Sustainability
Eco-friendly printers work to reduce energy consumption and environmental impacts by delivering environmentally conscious production methods and in-built energy efficiency features.
Leading printer manufacturers continue commitments to sustainable manufacturing methods with carbon neutral targets.
Such methods include the incorporation of recycled materials into the production process with certain models made with more than 30% recycled content by weight. Manufacturers are also taking steps to reducing amounts of plastic packaging and switching to sustainable materials.
For instance, HP is working to incorporate ocean-bound plastics into their production methods, with more than 1.7 million pounds of ocean-bound plastics secured for use in HP products so far.
These changes to design and production methods help printer manufacturers to achieve long-term sustainability goals and ensure responsible sourcing of materials.
In terms of in-built sustainability features, the vast majority of modern printers include Energy Star certification ensuring devices comply with a stringent set of energy efficiency criteria. Energy Star compliant printers can reduce energy consumption by up to 35 percent when compared to conventional devices, helping users to reduce carbon footprints.
Energy Star certified printing solutions are designed to boost efficiency with a range of in-built features including automatic sleep modes and automatic double-sided printing enabled as standard which allows users to cut paper requirements by 50% in compatible devices.
In addition to energy efficiency innovations, several leading printer manufacturers also offer comprehensive supplies recycling programs.
For example, Xerox has committed to delivering responsible and environmental business printers with the introduction of the Xerox Green World Alliance. The alliance offers a valuable recycling process that aims to minimise the environmental impacts of printer supplies. Since its inception, the alliance has managed to keep thousands of tons of supplies out of landfills.
Offering industry leading alternatives for used supplies, the Xerox Green World Alliance delivers extensive sustainability solutions including, print cartridge reprocessing, waste toner reuse, plastics and metals recovery and turning waste into energy.
Lower energy consumption and cheaper costs
With energy prices continuing to rise, eco-friendly printers enable users to drastically reduce energy consumption levels to achieve lower overall printing costs.
For instance, the Epson EcoTank range can achieve 90% lower power consumption when compared to equivalent colour laser printers thanks to a refillable cartridge-free design which entails the use of highly pigmented liquid inks which do not require the energy intensive warm-up period involved in the laser printing process.
In addition to reduced energy consumption, eco-friendly printers allow users to significantly lower their consumable costs.
In terms of lowering running costs, ink tank printers leverage a cartridge-free design to slash the cost of consumables. Using refillable tank technology, ink tank printers allow for easy supplies replenishment using bottled inks.
With considerably higher ink capacities when compared to conventional cartridge-based inkjet printers, ink tank printers allow users to drive down cost-per-page costs and print far higher volumes between refills.
The different types of eco-friendly printers
Eco-friendly printers encompass a range of different print technologies and feature-sets. With single-function and multi-function solutions available, users can find an eco-friendly printer that directly suits their needs.
Kyocera is pioneering environmentally friendly printing with the introduction of carbon neutral printers. Kyocera pledge to offset the device production and transport, plus the consumables used over the lifetime of the printer via a simple bolt on to the devices purchase.
Carbon offsetting is achieved via a partnership with MyClimate which invests in specific climate protection projects in-line with UN sustainability goals.
Ink tank technology allows printer manufacturers to produce a range of eco-friendly printers that help users to achieve sustainability goals without compromising on performance or print quality.
The Epson Ecotank range offers a fundamentally different approach to printing, incorporating a refillable ink tank design combined with specially designed ink bottles that allow users to replenish ink levels with ease thanks to their spill-free design.
The high-capacity ink tanks mean ultra-low cost-per-page printing allowing users to save up to 90% on printing costs.
Sustainability is at the forefront the Epson EcoTank range which delivers low power consumption thanks to heat-free precision core technology requiring zero heat in the ink ejection process.
For use in the office, the Epson EcoTank for Business series delivers ultra-fast performance in a compact design, perfect for any busy work environment.
Sustainable inks and paper
The best eco-friendly printers combine environmentally sound innovations whilst ensuring printing resources are also sustainably sourced.
Ink tank printers drastically reduce the amounts of resources used in the consumables production process. Due to their innovative cartridge-free design, ink tank printers can hold much higher capacities compared to traditional cartridges whilst reducing packaging waste. The refillable ink tanks also allow for a huge reduction in waste produced over the lifetime of the printer.
When it comes to eco-friendly print media, there are a wide range of sustainably sourced paper products to choose from. With offerings available from producers including the Woodland Trust, users can rest assured that their printer media is manufactured in an environmentally friendly way. The Woodland Trust uses energy generated from waste material to create printer paper resulting in zero CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. During the production process, excess heat from paper production is captured and piped to a community heating project.
By merging an eco-friendly printer with an internal paper recycling process, businesses can further reduce carbon footprints.
Discover our range of eco-friendly printers
For those looking for the best eco-friendly printers, Printerland features a broad range of brands and models from leading manufacturers including Xerox, HP, Epson, Kyocera and more. All eco-friendly models are available for purchase directly from the Printerland website.
Eco-friendly printing solutions are available in a selection of formats including A4, A3 and multifunction varieties. For advice choosing the best eco-friendly printer for your needs, browse our selection of models online or speak to our expert advisors today.
