Business owners, especially the small business breed, have been struggling to keep their businesses afloat while still trying to reach out and bring in new customers or clients. If your business has seen better times and could use a little bit of budgeting help, you should consider reusing your printed documents rather than just throwing them out.

Why should any business reuse their old documents? Well, not only can you save money, but you can also do your part to save the planet. Your business can be budget friendly and eco-friendly at the same time.

Here are a few ways your business can reuse old printed documents in new ways.

Double Up

If your businesses uses a lot of documents that never actually cross the counter from business to client, you can reuse that document by sticking it back into the printer and printing a new document on the blank side. Or, you can set your printer to print on both sides of the document right from the get-go. This saves on paper and you’ll find that you are throwing out a lot less paper. This is a great method to use if the documents are unimportant and are never actually seen outside of the office.

Shred and Ship

If you have old documents piled about ready to see the trash heap, why not just shred the documents and use them as packing materials to keep your customer’s products safe? This method is a great way to get rid of unimportant office documents, and old fliers and brochures. The protective power of paper is seen a lot in the shipping or transportation industries. Some companies use crumpled brown paper, and some movers will actually pack a family’s breakables in old newspapers.

If you want to save money on disposal costs and save money on shipping materials, you can save the planet and your bottom line by shredding old papers and reusing them.

There are tons of other, creative ways to reuse old business documents. When you get right down to it, you’ll realize that you’re reducing your carbon footprint while also reducing your overhead costs. Win-win!