Minimizing your printer's environmental impact

Lexmark is committed to environmental sustainability and is continually improving its printers to reduce their impact on the environment. We design with the environment in mind, engineer our packaging to reduce materials, and provide collection and recycling programs. For more information, see:

By selecting certain printer settings or tasks, you may be able to reduce your printer's impact even further. This chapter outlines the settings and tasks that may yield a greater environmental benefit.

Saving paper and toner

Studies show that as much as 80% of the carbon footprint of a printer is related to paper usage. You can significantly reduce your carbon footprint by using recycled paper and the following printing suggestions, such as printing on both sides of the paper and printing multiple pages on one side of a single sheet of paper.

For information on how you can quickly save paper and energy using one printer setting, see "Using Eco-Mode".

Using recycled paper

As an environmentally conscious company, Lexmark supports the use of recycled office paper produced specifically for use in laser printers. For more information on recycled papers that work well with your printer, see Using recycled paper and other office papers.

Conserving supplies

There are a number of ways you can reduce the amount of paper and toner you use when printing. You can:

Use both sides of the paper

If your printer model supports duplex printing, then you can control whether print appears on one or two sides of the paper by selecting 2-sided printing from the Print dialog or the Lexmark Toolbar.

Place multiple pages on one sheet of paper

You can print up to 16 consecutive pages of a multiple-page document onto one side of a single sheet of paper by selecting a setting from the Multipage printing (N-Up) section of the Print dialog screen.

Check your first draft for accuracy

Before printing or making multiple copies of a document:

Avoid paper jams

Carefully select and load paper to avoid paper jams. For more information, see Avoiding jams.

Saving energy

Using Eco-Mode

Use Eco-Mode to quickly select one or more ways to reduce your printer's environmental impact.

Note: See the table for the multiple settings that change when you select an Eco-Mode setting.

Choose

To

Energy

Reduce energy use, especially when the printer is idle.

  • Printer engine motors do not start until a job is ready to print. You may notice a short delay before the first page is printed.

  • The printer enters Power Saver mode after one minute of inactivity.

  • When the printer enters Power Saver mode, the printer control panel display light is turned off.

Paper

  • Enable the automatic duplex feature (on printer models that support duplex).

  • Turn off print log features.

Energy/Paper

Use all the settings associated with Energy mode and Paper mode.

Off

Use factory default settings for all settings associated with Eco-Mode. This setting supports the performance specifications for your printer.


  1. Make sure that the printer is on and Ready appears.

  2. From the printer control panel, press the Menu button.

  3. Press the up or down arrow button until check markSettings appears, and then press the select button.

  4. Press the up or down arrow button until check markGeneral Settings appears, and then press the select button.

  5. Press the up or down arrow button until check markEco-Mode appears, and then press the select button.

  6. Press the up or down arrow button to scroll through the list of possible settings. Press the select button at the correct setting.

    Submitting Selection appears.

Reducing printer noise

Use Quiet Mode to reduce printer noise.

Note: See the table for the multiple settings that change when you select a Quiet Mode setting.

Choose

To

On (Text/Graphics)

Note: This setting is best suited for printing text and line graphics.

Reduce printer noise.

  • Print jobs are processed at one-half the normal processing speed.

  • Printer engine motors do not start until a job is ready to print. There is a short delay before the first page is printed.

  • Fans run at reduced speed or are turned off.

  • If your printer has faxing capability, fax sounds are reduced or disabled, including those made by the fax speaker and ringer. The fax is placed in standby mode.

  • The alarm control and cartridge alarm sounds are turned off.

  • The printer ignores the Advance Start command.

Off (Image/Photo)

Note: Selecting Photo from the driver may disable Quiet Mode and provide better print quality and full speed printing.

Use factory default settings. This setting supports the performance specifications for your printer.


  1. Make sure that the printer is on and Ready appears.

  2. From the printer control panel, press the Menu button.

  3. Press the up or down arrow button until check markSettings appears, and then press the select button.

  4. Press the up or down arrow button until check markGeneral Settings appears, and then press the select button.

  5. Press the up or down arrow button until check markQuiet Mode appears, and then press the select button.

  6. Press the up or down arrow button to scroll through the list of possible settings. Press the select button at the correct setting.

    Submitting Selection appears.

Adjusting Power Saver

Available settings range from 1–240 minutes. The factory default setting is 30 minutes.

To increase or decrease the number of minutes before the printer enters Power Saver mode, do one of the following:

Using the Embedded Web Server

  1. Type the printer IP address into the address field of your Web browser.

    Note: If you do not know the IP address of the printer, then print a network setup page and locate the IP address in the TCP/IP section.

  2. Click Settings, and then click General Settings.

  3. Click Timeouts.

  4. In the Power Saver box, increase or decrease the number of minutes you want the printer to wait before it enters Power Saver mode.

  5. Click Submit.

Using the printer control panel

  1. Make sure the printer is on and Ready appears.

  2. Press menu button.

  3. Press the up or down arrow button until checkmarkSettings appears, and then press Select button.

  4. Press the up or down arrow button until checkmarkGeneral Settings appears, and then press Select button.

  5. Press the up or down arrow button until checkmarkTimeouts appears, and then press Select button.

  6. Press the up or down arrow button until picture of a checkmarkPower Saver appears, and then press Select button.

  7. Press the up or down arrow button to increase or decrease the number of minutes before the printer enters Power Saver mode, and then press select button.

Recycling

Lexmark provides collection programs and environmentally progressive approaches to recycling. For more information, see:

Recycling Lexmark products

To return Lexmark products to Lexmark for recycling:

  1. Visit our Web site at www.lexmark.com/recycle.

  2. Find the product type you want to recycle, and then select your country from the list.

  3. Follow the instructions on the computer screen.

Recycling Lexmark packaging

Lexmark continually strives to minimize packaging. Less packaging helps to ensure that Lexmark printers are transported in the most efficient and environmentally sensitive manner and that there is less packaging to dispose of. These efficiencies result in fewer greenhouse emissions, energy savings, and natural resource savings.

Lexmark cartons are 100% recyclable where corrugated recycling facilities exist. Facilities may not exist in your area.

The foam used in Lexmark packaging is recyclable where foam recycling facilities exist. Facilities may not exist in your area.

When you return a cartridge to Lexmark, you can reuse the box that the cartridge came in. Lexmark will recycle the box.

Returning Lexmark cartridges for reuse or recycling

The Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program diverts millions of Lexmark cartridges from landfills annually by making it both easy and free for Lexmark customers to return used cartridges to Lexmark for reuse or recycling. One hundred percent of the empty cartridges returned to Lexmark are either reused or demanufactured for recycling. Boxes used to return the cartridges are also recycled.

To return Lexmark cartridges for reuse or recycling, follow the instructions that came with your printer or cartridge and use the pre-paid shipping label. You can also:

  1. Visit our Web site at www.lexmark.com/recycle.

  2. From the Toner Cartridges section, select your country from the list.

  3. Follow the instructions on the computer screen.