I suppose you could set reasonable guidelines for people depositing the
paper to be re-used into the "re-use" stack, and hope they follow those
guidelines. Then you would be dealing with your (very appropriate)
concern at the source.

Then you could set reasonable guidelines on what the re-used paper could
be used for. That way you could try to ensure the the re-used paper does
not end up anywhere that it could cause confusion or compromise your
corporate information.

Neither would be fool-proof and both would be subject to human error.

Gary Link, CRM
Sixburgh, PA



-----Original Message-----
From: Johnson, Chris J. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 3:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Printing to reusable paper and the ramifications to RM

Hi all -
 
I'm a long time lurker and have benefited greatly from the sage advise
and wisdom of this group.  I am the Records Manager for the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency.  One of our operational strategic objectives
is to reduce the organization's carbon footprint by repurposing
materials and reducing consumption and thereby reducing waste
generation.  Recently, our Sustainability Manager inquired about my
perspective on having designated printers within our buildings with a
restriction imposed that they be used only for printing of nonrecord
documents.   For a long time, I've held fast to the position that using
recycled (meaning printing on the other side of discarded paper)
compromises our record system integrity because the probability is very
high that disparate or inappropriate information will end up in the
files.  The organization has respected this position.   The new
operational goal of replacing printers as they expire and directing
employees to print to area copiers is being implemented.  These MFD
copiers are less expensive to maintain and have a neat feature of
applying an automatic clock to each print job.  If the document is not
retrieved within 3 days from the print queue then the print request is
deleted.  The assumption is that the employees will not be making
thoughtless decisions to print everything because the clock will be
ticking on their decisions.  
 
As with all organizations, our employees struggle with "what is a
record".  My opinion on the suggestion to have dedicated printers that
use only reusable paper is mixed.  I see the overall benefit, however,
I'm not confident that the inappropriate materials won't still make it
the files.   The Sustainability Manager has asked me to identify the
boundaries of what should not be allowed to be printed on repurposed
paper from a document management perspective.  Since my bias is strong,
I thought I would pose the question to you.  Your opinions are
appreciated.
 
Chris Johnson
Records Manager
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
651-757-2472
 

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