As some of you know, I have several laser printers, which I use for various purposes. One of them, an HP P1102W, is small and fast enough for my porposes. Wireless and USB, but no duplexing. I have it connected to my main computer and it sits above my computer desk.

I often find myself printing one- or two-page documents; proof copies, information I need for a short time, data I take to a customer's site (but don't hand out). etc. The 1102 is my default printer, so I just click on the printer icon and out pops the page. Then, shortly thereafter, I dump the page in the trash bin. With one perfectly good side.

So I got to thinking. I buy paper in 10-ream cases and I'm getting a little low. As an experiment I took some of the paper destined for the trash and loaded it into the bypass slot on the printer and printed.

As expected, the sheets came out like always, but now the "back" side had other stuff printed on it. But, since no one else will see it, and it's all going into the trash eventually, no big deal.

Well, I "feel good" about myself (saving trees and all that) but I thought I'd ask - do any of you do something similar or am I just the cheapest guy you've ever met?

If I actually have the used paper still sitting around, I've done this too, but I don't make a habit of keeping paper printed on one side for later reuse. It usually gets recycled long before I have a need to print more.

I don't keep the neatest office/desk area in the world. There is some stuff I bring home that I have to save for a while - when the need passes, I just stack them close at hand and out of the way. Plus, I don't always think of doing this, but when I do there's almost always a small stack available..

I presume running fused copies through the process again will not effect the printing mechanism in any way. After all, that's what duplexing (manual or automatic) does, so it shouldn't bother it at all

I've been doing this since my first printer that wasn't dot-matrix with holes on the sides. I actively keep every sheet with a blank side. My current printer has two trays; one is stocked with second-sided paper for printing whatever doesn't need to be on new paper, which is most of my printing.

A man after my own heart.

Actually it can. Depending on how the paper is picked up by the printer "rollers", the paper can get caught in the mechanisms. For SFF printers, should not be a big deal. But for full-on printers, it is a pain in the .... Happen too often and it can really foul up the printer. You will sometimes see reference to an "anti-curling" technology... That was one solution to the issue. Another solution was to use drums to pick up the sheets instead of thin rollers, but those also had issues due to the rubber hardening faster...

Load of fun.

Me 2. Since the last millennium.
​​​​​​

However, due to humidity levels the second printing is quite curly so one needs to monitor output tray if printing larger jobs.

Feeding used paper through the printer increases the chance of a jam.

For the record, I'm a woman.

sure. not for official stuff but for scratch type work

El Cheapo's reply:

You need to be neat with the paper, no folds, crease nor dog-ears. Also do not use one's which has full page printed like photos as the fused toner is more slippery for printers not designed for duplexing.

The thing is it's hard to be neat enough with the paper to avoid the increased jam risk.

My work used to print cover pages with just a banner at the top of the page. I saved all these and ended up with 2 reams worth of paper which I used as scratch/note paper. I also made sketch books for my kids with this paper + cut up cereal boxes for the covers + t nuts/bolts.

http://imgur.com/a/9pDc3YE

I've been doing this for years. Once I printed my boarding passes on one...causing a bemused (but polite) comment from the Delta gate agent....

Recently I found a bunch of old dot matrix daisy wheel paper--the kind with holes on the sides and the paper continuously connected. It has made great scratch paper...I will be sad when it is used up