Earth Day is tomorrow!
In honor of Earth Day, let’s talk about something easy you can do to get more miles out of your printer paper before you recycle it. You recycle your printer paper, right? Good.
Printer paper doesn’t leave our house until it’s been used up.
Paper Printed on One Side
In our home office/craft area, I keep a pile of paper that has only been printed on one side. The pile lives in a desk drawer with other printer supplies.
Stack of paper printed on one side only.
We use this paper to print drafts: draft documents for school, draft headlines for scrapbook pages and draft photos. Drafts are printed always in black and white on the lowest resolution setting so we save ink as well.
These draft headlines are printed with paper from my stash.
Paper Printed on Both Sides
This doesn’t go straight to the recycle bin. I cut up paper to use as a placeholder or to visualize a layout design before cutting into the expensive paper. Example: “do I want a 5.5-inch square here or can I fit a 6-inch square?”
Finally, paper printed on both sides makes for a great drop cloth! I tend to get glue everywhere so having extra pieces of paper around really helps.
Paper printed on both sides = drop cloth!
How do you reuse things on your craft table? I hope these tips work for you!
Photo Credit: Earthday.org
Almost Never Clever 
I will admit… I don’t always recycle the paper. That’s bad, I know. But I do have a spot I could save it and you’ve given some terrific ides. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I save so much paper by reusing it at least once!
I LOVE Earth Day but let’s not forget that it is and always has been Good Friday !
It’s odd this year that Easter is so late! Earth Day is always toward the end of April (April 22 last year) but Easter is usually a couple weeks earlier!
These are great ideas. I need to do the “drop cloth” more. I tend to pull a perfectly good scrap piece of paper when I need one because I don’t have enough used scraps around. I am a recycling fanatic. It was second nature to me growing up in the Pacific Northwest. My county here in TN finally added curbside recycling last summer. In Spokane, we had it in the 80’s! I will go out of my way to recycle, but most people will not. Happy Earth Day and Good Friday! 🙂
You are forgiven for the time being for not saving paper for dropcloths because you are moving! I don’t want to hear about you packing scratch paper to take to your new home 🙂
Yes, it is interesting how different parts of the country slowly adapt to recycling norms. We live near San Francisco and Berkeley, so we hear about the pioneering efforts all the time! We were at a festival in San Francisco last weekend and they had compost bins everywhere.
HI Natalie!
I finally got some time to check out your site!
I love the post! I do the same thing at home. Works great when stamping and embossing to reuse paper.
Thanks for coming by! It was great meeting you!
Very good and practical ideas…I have been doing this reuse of paper since my girlfriend mentioned to me 30 years ago…why do you only use 1 side of the paper?
It was my conviction then and I still do it…I also use the drop cloth method….thanks for your helpful, insightful and practical tips.
Thanks Beverly! Great minds think alike!