With e-mail technology arrived the idea of reduced paper usage came with it. This may not be the case according to a new study, which found that the use of e-mail has increased paper consumption in offices by 40%.
Richard Harper, the director of the University of Surrey"s digital world research centre, found that the amount of paper used in offices increased noticeably with the introduction of each new communications technology: fax, e-mail or the latest development, instant messaging.
The British study found that workers print out an electronic document, file the paper, cannot be bothered to remember where they filed it, and later print "20 or more" copies and distribute them to all and sundry.
The researchers concluded that most people would rather work with paper than with a computer screen.
Come to think of it, every e-mail (bar junk-mail) that is sent to my workplace gets printed out. :roll: