Software providers Toshiba, Papercut and GadgetGuy have joined forces for 'Do Something! Save Paper', a campaign that shows people how to stop receiving what they describe as wasteful direct mail.
It follows the recent launch of Google's 'Paperless 2013' campaign and the Toshiba-inspired National No Print Day in 2012.
Two Sides Australia slammed 'Do Something! Save Paper' as "biased and misleading", while the Australian Catalogue Association said it promoted a "false environmental agenda". Environmental group Verdigris also took aim at Google, calling on printers to boycott the tech giant's products to force it to end what it described as a self-serving campaign.
Local printers of all shapes and sizes also took aim at the greenwashing.
Dobson Printing executive director Patrick Crawford told ProPrint that the industry was being maligned by companies "that have a vested interest in getting people to use products that replace us".
"Print has been driven to a higher level of environmental responsibility than any other industry I can think of," said Crawford.
Researching products via catalogues and then buying them at supermarkets is a greener alternative than the "massively inefficient" online model, said Phil Taylor, managing director of Franklin Web.
"You go to the local Westfield and buy 12 items. Those 12 items could potentially be delivered one at a time [if ordered online]."
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IPMG chief executive Stephen Anstice also defended catalogues. "I think sponsors of anti-paper campaigns should back up any claims with independent scientific evidence."
The managing director of Kopystop Digital Print Solutions, Art Tchetchenian, said the print industry had made "a great effort" to improve the efficiency of "every aspect of the print process".
"Overall, printers are making a conscious effort to go green, whether through their choice of paper supplier or equipment supplier all the way through to the processes that are incorporated in the entire print process onsite and then through to delivery."
The owner of Minuteman Press's Melbourne CBD franchise, Michael Milivojac, said the industry needed to do more to promote the positive green measures that had been taken by paper manufacturers and printers.
"Everything I do within our business is FSC accredited. We have the Truly Green accreditation through GASAA. There's hardly a chemical in my place."
Greenridge Press managing director Mark Osborne said his firm made a point of capitalising on its environmental record.
"All of the paper that we use here comes only from sustainable resources, contains no elemental flourines, is manufactured under a self-improvement code and we print with vegetable-based inks," he told ProPrint.
"Even if we don't use paper that's recycled, we're producing a very environmentally responsible production."
Speaking at the EFI Connect conference in Las Vegas, industry personality and ProPrint columnist Frank Romano said: "We have Google telling us to go paperless; we should tell the industry to go 'Google-less'."
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