While most people are using color printers, a large part of printing work is done in black and white. Remember the days when typewriters were used for all correspondence – the most color you could get was if you used a red and black ribbon. Early printers, too, were monochrome.

Samsung has introduced the ML-1660 and ML-1665 printers which are easy to use. In fact you can select the text you want printed and drag and drop it into a blank page for easy printing. This way you save on paper and printing costs, by printing only what is required.

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A computer user also uses a printer. And printers use ink cartridges. Now once the ink in the cartridges is over, the cartridges are thrown away. Even though some refilling kits are available, most manufacturers will always recommend using their own products and not refilling the cartridges.

Now Dell has launched its NextLife ink cartridges which can be used with many different leading printers. These cartridges have been remanufactured. According to Dell as many as 400 million cartridges end up in landfills and if only one percent are remanufactured then the environmental (carbon) savings would be the equivalent of planting 15,000 new trees.

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The Stick POP printer has been designed by Jihun Kang, Youngho Lee, Jieun Lee & Changsu – it is in the concept stage and still not commercially available. This portable printer measures 23cm by 6cm and you can carry it anywhere with you. It offers USB connectivity and an OLED screen on top of the bar that can display printing status.

It uses slot type cartridges which seem easy enough to change. No word on whether it can print in color or not. How is it environmentally friendly you may well ask? Well, since it is extremely small it is going to use much less plastic. It is also powered by an internal battery and can be connected via USB, so it is going to use less power.

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Casio has jumped on the green bandwagon with its new Green Slim range of projectors. The projector is lightweight and really thin so very portable. Plus it does not use a mercury lamp, so is mercury free. As you know, mercury is a poisonous substance.

The green slim range of projectors is available in four versions. Casio says that its projectors work on a mercury free laser and LED hybrid source, which makes them very eco-friendly. Plus they can work even in a bright room, so there is really no necessity of dimming the lights.

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Printers are used a lot in offices without any thought about how much paper, ink and power they consume. In offices, a great deal of printing is done in monochrome. As such, the Brother HL-5250DN printer which is a monochrome printer offers a good deal as it is environmentally friendly.

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Solar-powered calculators have been around for a long time and now it is the turn of water-powered calculators to reduce dependency on batteries. Unlike solar powered calculators which need sunlight to run, and may not work or get charged when there is no sun, there is no danger of that happening with water. For the environmentally friendly consumer, the water-powered calculator is a handy device to have around, and can be used for most normal calculations up to 8 digits.

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Toners are used in offices globally and in the U.S alone 50,000 tons of petroleum is used to make the toners. While the cartridges are refillable and recyclable, so much petroleum is not and being a fossil fuel is not a renewable product. Soy toner is made from soya beans and so is eco-friendly.

Soy and vegetable based inks are used in many printing cartridges These are competitively priced as well, so you should aim at making your office an environmentally friendly place by used material from sustainable sources where available.

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Haven’t you been frustrated trying to remove staple pins from documents? Sometimes papers get torn, sometimes fingernails get broken and sometimes the pin actually pricks a finger and causes bleeding. And then you get even more exasperated when the stapler runs out of pins and then you have to put in more. This eco-friendly gadget – it saves metal – is available in different varieties though it works on the same principle.

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