Comments on: One paper airplane, every day, for the next two years.

Question: One paper airplane, every day, for the next two years.

Lucinda — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:13:07 -0800

What to do with 750+ sheets of used letter-sized paper?

My supervisor made me print out a 750+ page document that will be obsolete within a week. The information is not sensitive and does not need to be shredded.

Bonus points for uses that will also gently let my supervisor know this was not one of her brighter ideas.

By: DieHipsterDie

DieHipsterDie — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:14:55 -0800

Um, recycle it?

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:16:42 -0800

When a paper cutter's handy, I always cut them in half, stick them all in a big binder clip, and use it as a scrap paper notebook. I once brought it into a meeting to take notes on and the CEO complimented me on saving the company money; I imagine you could use it in meetings with your supervisor for subtle retaliatory effect.

By: bonheur

bonheur — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:17:22 -0800

Cut the whole stack into quarters, paint one edge of each stack with glue and use them as scratch paper. This assumes that one side of each page is still blank, of course.

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:23:34 -0800

Shred them, put them in a bucket with a bunch of white wood glue, mix that up (you can get a drill attachment to do this), form that into balls with one flat side.

On the non-flat side write "We only learn from mistakes when we are reminded of them."

Then give them out as paperweights.

By: nickerbocker

nickerbocker — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:28:19 -0800

Burn them? Using them as scratch paper is too obvious for me. Maybe cut them into quarters and then place them near your toilet and remove all toilet paper then throw a party!

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:42:07 -0800

occhiblu's idea for the win.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:43:58 -0800

I second the scratchpad idea. Take it to Kinko's and they'll do it all for you (for a fee, of course).

By: forallmankind

forallmankind — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:49:45 -0800

Since you posted this to human relations; if I was your supervisor, I wouldn't consider any type of retaliation particularly good human relations, no matter how creative your document recycling turns out to be.

By: hooray

hooray — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:53:55 -0800

Keep it handy for the inevitable request to print out some other 750+ page document and then print on the other side of these pages.

Nowadays, you can tell the printer to print double-sided. On a mac, this is under File->Print->Paper Handling->Print Odd Numbered Pages. Then you flip the pages over and print the Even Numbered ones.

You can also change the layout settings to print multiple pagespages per sheet. On a mac, this would be File->Print->Layout->Pages per sheet (4, 8 or even 16).

Otherwise, are you handy with paper mache? You could make a paper mache tree decoration for the office.

By: hooray

hooray — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:54:26 -0800

Er, pages not pagespages.

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:55:53 -0800

Let kids draw on them.

By: sperose

sperose — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:01:18 -0800

I dig Kickstart70's idea.

Or scratch paper. That's the general usage in my house. (We have a lot of useless paper.)

By: scarabic

scarabic — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:07:07 -0800

Keep it handy for the inevitable request to print out some other 750+ page document

Yep. There are times I print things just because I need to hold them in my hands to leaf through them and read them. I usually fish around in the recycling bin for pre-used paper to do this on. It sounds like you've got a nice clean stack of it to last you a long time. Keep it orderly and you're set. Reusing is better than recycling.

By: cholly

cholly — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:23:52 -0800

You got any kids/nieces/nephews etc in college/uni/other learning institution? Give it to them. My sister brings home a bucketload of used paper from work and I use it to print off lecture notes and drafts of documents.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:30:22 -0800

Doorstop?
Placemats for lunch?
Office airplane making contest (then recycle)?
Make a flip cartoon of your boss demanding the printout?

By: tracicle

tracicle — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:12:33 -0800

Donate the paper to a nearby childcare center for the kids' art projects. For added retaliatory fun, ask the childcare principal to send a thank-you note for the paper to your supervisor.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:16:36 -0800

No snark intended, but if your company bought the paper, toner, and power for the printer at Office Depot bulk prices, your boss made an $8 mistake. If it were possible to calculate a disposal cost for a ream and half of office paper, I'd think it to be in range of cents, if one could, and the stuff is biodegradable. If you spend more than $4 recovering materials from it, it's good money after bad.

How much of your time does $4 buy? Probably not enough to spend cutting the paper into half sheets and binding it.

By: wuzandfuzz

wuzandfuzz — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:18:40 -0800

origami polyhedron! make a giant geodesic ball!

By: krautland

krautland — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:40:11 -0800

imagine how much confetti a hole puncher could create.
imagine how many hideaways the average office offers.

I see the sixth best office prank ever.

By: TheOtherGuy

TheOtherGuy — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:46:12 -0800

Get some binding clips and attach it all togeher and write that great novel thats inside you.

By: anjamu

anjamu — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:43:42 -0800

It looks like you have kids. I spent pretty much my whole childhood drawing on the back of scrap paper my parents brought home from work. Since there was an endless supply of the stuff, I never cared that one side had stuff on it.

Now that we're older, they just chop the stuff up into fourths and use it as household notepaper.

By: zoinks

zoinks — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:37:39 -0800

Use it in the fax machine. If your fax machine is anything like in the offices I've worked at, most of the incoming faxes are junk anyway.

By: kingjoeshmoe

kingjoeshmoe — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:53:52 -0800

750+ paper cranes.

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:28:51 -0800

Two words: Origami Orgy.

By: crush-onastick

crush-onastick — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:02:06 -0800

pulp them. make "artisan papers" for use in personal correspondence.

essentially, you rip the paper, add interesting fibers if you want (flowers, thread), put in blender half filled with warm water. start at low speed, increasing to a high speed, blend until smooth.

dump about four blenderfulls into a tub, again half-filled with water. stir. then you have to mold the paper. if you want stiffer writing paper, you should add some laundry sizing to the mix.

you mold paper by strecthing windowscreening in a frame (a frame that fits over your tub). then you plop some pulp on the mold, smooth it out with your hands or a big sponge, let the water drip. peel it off, and lay it flat to dry.

By: benign

benign — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:09:23 -0800

I also recommend letting kids draw on it. I have fond memories of doing exactly that. You could also use it to play eat poop you cat. It's a hilarious game, and it uses a lot of paper quickly.

By: Mr. Gunn

Mr. Gunn — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:23:31 -0800

Leave the whole pile on your desk to use as scrap paper, particularly scrap paper that'll end up as notes all around the office. It'll be a monument to itself.

The other way is to just suck it up and realize that as long as you're working in a job where people can tell you to do stuff, they'll occasionally tell you to do stupid stuff, and it's not even really worth a second thought.

By: mecran01

mecran01 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:42:37 -0800

No snark intended, but if your company bought the paper, toner, and power for the printer at Office Depot bulk prices, your boss made an $8 mistake.

I guess if you want to reduce the mental and symbolic significance of everyday life to a narrow, materialist measure, that's one way of looking at it. In my opinion, the questioner is asking:

1. How do I express my resentment at being asked to do stupid, wasteful things by my boss, who ignored my good advice, and do it in a creative manner?

At that point you're not really talking about money any more, it's a self-respect issue.

I suggest paper sculptures used to decorate your work area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardsweeney/sets/72057594105588057/

By: Savannah

Savannah — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:54:43 -0800

Boring, and previously cited, but I use mis-prints in the office as scratch paper. I actually made up a template for the other side with a space for the date, and the top line says Message Note Reminder Task and so on, which I circle as I use.

I load the recycle paper into the printer and print my note format on the other side.

I usually do this printing of the other side when no one else in the office is around to send jobs to the printer.

Sometimes I take a stack home with me and use it for printing off story drafts of my writing. Now that we recycle paper, I hate to throw a clean, letter-sized sheet in the recycle bin. In the old days, paper would get all mucky in the regular garbage, and it never would have occurred to me to recycle it.

Also origami, but you have to cut it to a square, first.