STOP PRINTING

2025-03-31

Printing is a plague on modern work culture, a relic from an era when people thought paper was the pinnacle of human achievement. In 2025, this archaic practice has little justification. In this overly combative blog post, I invite you, dear reader, to consider not printing things all the time.

Who prints the most?

From what I've seen, doctors and lawyers are the worst offenders. I've worked with lawyers who insist on printing every email. I've also witnessed doctors print out a piece of paper just so I can hand it to a receptionist, who then faxes it to another doctor. The modern office, in general, is far too obsessed with paper.

Receipt printing is another particularly egregious waste. This Reddit comment estimates that 38,000m³ of paper is wasted on receipts each year. That is a staggering amount!

Who does this affect?

Mainly, the environment. But let's not forget the humble IT worker, doomed to battle these infernal machines when they inevitably break.

Printers do not help you fix them, because they despise you. They can smell fear, operate on pure malice, and will only start working when they feel like it. Some printers are better than others, but that's not saying much.

What can we do instead?

99.9% of the time, when you feel the need to print a document at work, you could just email it instead. There's almost never a good reason to waste paper like this anymore. The same goes for most snail mail.

E-signatures are now widely accepted, so you don't need to print out a form just to sign it.

Rather than printing a receipt for every transaction (or, if you're in Asia, two or more per transaction), businesses can simply offer digital receipts or invoices. Many already do!

Counterarguments

"But I need to print X!"

If you really need to print something, go ahead. I'm not saying to abolish printing entirely—just that it's a massive waste most of the time. There is still value in printing things like zines, books, passports, and certificates, where the physical form matters.

"What about old people?"

Opening an email isn't exactly rocket science. And if someone truly needs a printed copy, they can request one. The key is to stop assuming everyone needs paper by default.

"Paper doesn't run out of battery!"

This is probably the only solid argument for printing, and I acknowledge that there are times when a hard copy is genuinely useful. That said, my main point remains: we should think before we print, and there's absolutely no reason we should still be using this much paper.