'Trigger happy' printing costing firms a fortune

Some office staff were guilty of "trigger happy" printing, pressing the printer button on their computer before checking how many pages were in a document, or believing they "looked more important" if they had mountains of paper on their desk, a study by Envirowise found.

The government-funded programme, which offers environmental advice to businesses, said up to 120 billion pieces of paper were wasted every year in UK offices. A typical office worker printed 22 pages of paper every day, it claimed.

"Unnecessary printing of emails, multiple copies, single-sided printing and the sending of massive documents to the printer which are unlikely to be read are just some of the regular scenarios lived out by businesses every day as a result of accidental printing," said Mary Leonard, a director at Envirowise.

"Most offices will find they can reduce waste costs by around 20% through simple no or low cost actions. Measures such as double sided or multiple page printing and recycling instead of paying for disposal can really help."