For work, we rely heavily on printing out a lot of material and theres nothing I can do about that, but personally at home I've even gotten rid of my printer, so I guess that makes me paperless?

I rarely print anything for personal use, but since I run my own business I print and file invoices, bids, proposals, etc. When the client becomes inactive their digital information gets backed up onto the external harddrive and their non-tax-related information (anything that is not a receipt or invoice) is shredded and recycled. Anything printed at the office is printed on recycled paper.

I keep trying to go paperless, but I find that I am most productive with my creative ventures when working on paper. I print data, plans, etc and scribble all over them. I don't print what I don't need to work on, and I always double-side.

Really, what I am waiting for is a desk-sized screen that I can use as a tablet. Unfortunately I think I will still be printing until then.

i work in architecture and we won't be going paperless anytime soon. we have stoped plotting full size sheets and now are using half size often, however

Other than mail, which I'm not sure I can stop, I only use paper for two things: Writing notes and organizing my ideas. And even then I like to use both sides.

I turn up my nose when someone decides to send me something in "dead-tree format." When my grandparents pass, there will be noone in my family who needs to ever send me letters.

i'm a full time student, and i work full time with medical bills. i end up printing a lot. i try to be smart about it, though. i pay attention to the images before printing and skip blanks or pages that are just images or otherwise unnecessary for the task.

I work in urban planning/design and as Bill the architect said, paper use is vital. However, there are still many in my company that print things needlessly and print single-sided. My LEED AP boss prints more than anyone in my department.

I use three methods of archiving information that I want to keep (information that I find on the web). 1.) Copy -> Paste into OpenOffice Write, then either save as a text document or export as a PDF. 2.) Bookmark the link for temporary reference (as in "Hey honey... look at this cool thing I found on the web!"). 3.) Print it if it is a document that needs to be referenced off line and away from a PC (instructions on flashing a video card BIOS from a bootable floppy, a wiring diagram for home or car electrical, shipping instructions and a label, etc... you get the picture).

As far as scanning something that someone has already sent me, no. Haven't done that yet. The stuff is already on paper, so I haven't seen a reason to archive it on my PC('s) just yet. After you do that you just end up throwing it away, so why not just stick it in a file?

I also print pictures. Yes, I know digital picture frames exist, but a printed picture has a nostalgic and personal feel to it that you just don't get from a shiny piece of glass that shows you picture after picture, day after day. Maybe for in the office, or for a public display of your craft work (at a craft show), but not for your personal and family treasures. You want to take a bit longer than 10 seconds to look at each of those.. that's what I grew up with, and I'm sticking with it. >:-)

Unfortunately, Uncle Sam demands a piece of paper proof for some things, for up to 10 years.

I'm getting close to murdering my colleagues who continue to print out copies of their stupid powerpoints for everyone at meetings. Yeah buddy, I'm just dying to make notes about your brilliant slides!

I work for a hospital group and we are slowly reducing our paper use as we move towards electronic medical records. The number of printers we are installings is actually increasing (I have 15 to install in the next three days) but 'what' we print is changing.

Before we had all kinds of hand-outs, prescription information sheets, etc all printed out on indiviual pages and stacked in big racks in the corner never to be used. Now we can print everything on demand and just hand what is needed to the patient (so we have more printers to make it more conveinient as well as reduce the posibility of patient information being seen while we run across a building to get it.)

About half our prescriptions are now electronically filed so there is less paper there. The amount of paper we used to have to ship to a warehouse for record keeping (we'd fill a large truck twice a month) has dropped (I'd guess to 10% of the previous amount) since we are moved to digital storage.

I think our next big paper reduction target would be what you need to fill out when you go in to a hospital or clinic. Once you are in our system you don't need to fill out more forms for each visit (other than scan in your medical insurance card if it has changed). A fully digital registration system would be nice (hand the user a tablet), but we are not there yet.

-Lego

I only print things I need to have access to when I don't have access to a computer. Like a grocery list, or directions.

I do it for my own orginization style, not to save the world. But I have to wonder which version uses less energy: paper or electric. Paper uses no additional resources once it is created except ink when I make notes on it. An electronic file is stored on my computer, the backup hard drive, etc. I use resources everytime I veiw it, and even when I am just looking for it.

Can't see any reason to waste more energy scanning in a paper file someone else gives me, so I file that stuff, where it sits till I dump it in the recycle bin a couple of years later.

Needless printing is awful, but paper itself is an ancient and lasting technology. Forget PowerPoint printouts; that's a waste, sure. Nobody would argue that. But computers become obsolete after just a few years. Important books have remained preserved over centuries. Let's not demonize simple technologies unnecessarily; they are often more durable.

I work for a software company that makes Document Management Software. That means that almost every document I deal with starts electronic and remains electronic. Now I won't say we are completely paperless, but I think we only have a hand full of printers for an organization of 650. I personally haven't printed anything for work in probably 2 years.

If you organization isn't doing electronic document management yet, they definately should!

as a graphic designer sometimes I have to make dummy/mockups of my work for presentations but also to make sure the piece works properly. however, that's rare. and obviously if I have to make a printed mockup, it's going to be a printed piece, so that's more paper. but the only other paper I tend to make use of is my notepad to scribble down ideas, figure out table structures for web/email work, or take notes in meetings. I keep all important records and files on my computer and on our server.

Since I work for a publishing company, you might be surprised at how little actual printing some of us do. Except for hard-copy versions of documents that are released to the customer, I don't have anything printed coming my way. Anything that needs to be printed is recylced as soon as it's unnecessary and 98% of documents are filed electronically.

Although I've opted out of mass-mailings, I still can't quite control the deluge at home.

I think the key to helping the environment when going paperless is to reduce printing -- I've switched to all online billpayment, online recordkeeping, etc. I take care to make backups of all my digital files though.

I noted the vote option that says for "legal and accounting reasons, I have to print and file a lot"

I used to either receive everything by mail because of the legal evidentiary problems of printing out documents or only having them stored electronically. It drove me crazy because to be honest I hate filing. But then I figured out how to make paperless records meet legal requirements and I started VaultStreet.com to share that solution with others.

VaultStreet offers the first end-to-end paperless records management system for consumers and small businesses. In other words, no scanner is every needed. As a result of my using VaultStreet I have been able to significantly cut back on the amount of paper in my life. To learn more about how you can truly go paperless you can go to www.vaultstreet.com.