A New/Old Way To Save Ink

A company called CoGen Media got in touch to tell us about a new product that will help save waste by helping printer cartridges last longer.

Probably invented to save money originally (it’s a great motivator), the ecoPrint2 software is becoming popular in America as way for schools, companies and individuals to be environmentally friendly. The software acts as an internal printer allowing you to automatically use less ink with your printer and even do things like print two pages per sheet without having to set it up each time.

So it saves ink and paper basically. Now I know the argument is that no printing saves even more ink and paper, and while I don’t print at all at home, at work it’s unavoidable. Businesses need to take their responsibilities more seriously and I would suggest, without actually being in a position to test it, that this sort of software, and idea in general, is a step in the right direction.

It does cost around $40 for the basic version though, so I’ll just be hunting for the ‘draft’ option on my printer I think. Go to Ecoprintsaver.com to find out more.

Another Two Ways To Save Money On Printing

With ink costing the equivalent of between $2,500 and $10,000 per gallon, it’s no wonder people look to reduce how much they use, as well as reducing paper use for eco reasons. Having previously mentioned ECO-SAFE and Green Print as ways to save money on printing, there are now two more ways.

EcoFont is a new font created in the Netherlands that’s designed to extend the life of ink cartridges and toner. An agency found that the best results were achieved using a font in which tiny circles were intentionally left blank in the middle of each line, much like Swiss cheese. The result is based on the Vera Sans, an open source letter, and uses up to 20 percent less ink than traditional fonts. Available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, it’s also free to download and use. The Ecofont works best in OpenOffice, AppleWorks and MS Office 2007 at the 9- or 10-point size.
[Via: Springwise]

ecoPrint2 typically set up an internal print driver that allows you to print your documents using dramatically less ink or toner, as well as dramatically less paper through printing two pages per sheet from any software application. Once a document is ready for printing, you simply click on the print button and the “economy printing” dialog box quickly appears. You have the option to reduce the percentage of ink to be used, as well as the ability to print several pages on one sheet of paper. The ink saver tool allows you to reduce the consumption of ink by up to 75% without compromising legibility and the paper saving feature allows you to print multiple pages on one sheet and to move, delete or rearrange pages.

Flashstick USB Drive Eco Product Review

You may have noticed the adverts for www.flashsticks.co.uk along the top of Life Goggles and since we’re advertising them I thought we’d best check one out.

The name ‘flashstick’ is simple and apt. A flashstick is a flash drive that’s also a stick. Literally. This usb drive is encased in a piece of hard wood, meaning the packaging is very environmentally friendly. That’s also because the wood is basically a twig from a branch that’s fallen off a tree in the woods in Berkshire, England. There’s no cutting down of trees here.

The wood is left to dry out for a few months and then carefully hollowed out to add the flash drive, then smoothed off and beeswax is used to give a nice finish. And that’s basically it. It looks real because it is real and will even get woodworm if you keep it in the wrong place.

There is a little plastic cover that goes over the top (you can see it in the video below), which is unavoidable really as the stick stands up nicely and it would get dirty and knocked. It’s is a minimal piece but maybe in the future that could be made out of wood?

As well as it’s looks and manufacturing process, it also has to perform as a usb drive. While the trend it is get bigger and bigger usb drives I’ve never seen the need to carry more than one or two gigabytes around with me, the rest is just empty space otherwise. The flashsticks are all two gig and work beautifully. I plugged it in, my PC took about 10 seconds to download a driver and it worked away. As it’s usb 2.0 it transfers files fast and easily, I haven’t had a problem with it at all and use it regularly.

Available from www.flashsticks.co.uk for £15, this is an unusual usb drive which has good eco-credentials.

Green Print Reduces The Paper Your Use

Green Print have a little piece of software that they claim can save you around $90 per year. It does this by reducing the amount of paper and ink that you use when printing. It’s a free software download that:

• Removes wasteful pages
• Includes a PDF writer
• Can track how many pages (and money) you have saved
• Currently only works on Windows

If you get annoyed at wasting paper and ink, take a look at Green Print’s free download.

Oscar USB Hub Eco Product Review

The United Pepper Oscar USB Hub is another device that attempts to take an eco-friendly approach to electronics in addition to their Lili webcam we’ve previously reviewed.

Designed in Belgium, and made in Vietnam the Oscar USB hub is made from 70% Fair Trade components. Removing as much of the plastic as possible, the usb hub is made from paperboard, cotton and kapok, and comes in red, blue or green (we got a green one of course!).

There’s not much to say about it, it looks cute, came in 100% PET recycled packaging, is only just over 6cm (about 2.5″), and has four USB sockets. It connects to your computer via a USB lead that connects to the hub via a mini-USB socket, so if you need a longer lead they’re easy to find.

Available for $30 or €25 from United Pepper it’s a nice sustainable approach to electronics.

Lili Webcam Eco Product Review

The United Pepper Lili Webcam is one of the first sustainable design electronics, and certainly the first sustainable webcam I’ve come across.

Made from sand, cotton and kapok, the Belgian designers (it’s manufactured in Vietnam) have tried to remove as much plastic as possible. 70% of the material is Fair Trade, and it comes in recycled (PET) packaging.

As a webcam itself it’s not bad. A 1.3 megapixel camera does the job as a webcam but don’t expect to be producing quality recordings with it. It has a built in microphone and when communicating with family it works great, though the colors can be a little washed out. The sand filled legs are flexible that makes it easier to position on difficult surfaces.

The test version I’ve got strangely has a seperate plug for the microphone socket, as well as the USB connector, though I’m not sure if it’s like that in the final product. Installation was on a minin-CD and was pretty simple though novices might find the lack of clear English and full instructions a little tricky. It has a manual focus lens too which actually made some things easier to see than my much more expensive webcam.

Overall, for a simple webcam with a built in microphone you can do worse, and for a sustainable webcam, you can’t do better. Available for $45 or €40 from United Pepper.

Upgrade Your Old Computer

Being a bit of a computer geek, I love to upgrade my computer as much as possible before buying a new one. Not only is it satisfying to see a slow computer whizz along with some new RAM, it’s also much cheaper and avoids the tricky problem of disposing with the old computer.

There are plenty of other good reasons to upgrade your current computer. Some facts from the lovethe1yourewith campaign (how to upgrade your computer instead of buying a new one):
- The energy required to produce a new computer is enough to run a computer for 10 years
- The energy saved by extending the life of your computer by a year could run it for 2 years
- Help put a stop to the 220 million tons of e-Waste generated annually in the USA

The website has some easy videos to show you how to add more RAM, manage process, refresh your operating system and replace your laptop battery. Not for beginners but you should be able to find someone who can do it for you if you’re not comfortable. They have a nice fun video too (embedded below).

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