My Green Printer Choice - Multifunction LEXMARK x7675 - $119!

I'm a gypsy right now - living back and forth between Phoenix and Kansas City. Each city has its charms. In Kansas City I own a lovely, fully-outfitted home, while in Phoenix I am camping out in my friend Jean's airy, high wood-beamed ceiling'd, citrus tree'd, brick patio'd, trailing vine'd, picket-fenced, perfectly fen shui'd but totally empty home. No furniture. Not a stick. Because I'm an unemployed student, and because it seems silly to waste a dollar when I have an entire home's worth of furniture in KC, I have contented myself to bring in the following: One blow-up bed. One very old refrigerator. One el cheapo office chair for the kitchen desk. Two plates, two bowls, a few pieces of silverware. A pot. A pan. My laptop. Two dogs and some dog toys. That's it. And it seems to be enough. With one exception.

I need a printer.

I planned to draft my dissertation on my laptop, but it turns out that I cannot get my head around editing without having a hard copy and a real pencil in my hand. Like I cannot get my head around reading fiction on a Kindle.

There are a million printers out there, and online techie reviewers galore. So I will limit myself to telling you about the printer I selected and why. I am a Google-Queen. I decide on the features I want, and then read, read, read until I satisfy myself that I am getting the most (and greenest) printer for my money.

I chose the Lexmark x7675 Pro multifunctional inkjet printer (CNET review video below). Here's why (the green features are in green type):

1. Automatic two-sided printing saves paper, trees and money

2. Planned longevity and a transferable 5-year warranty if you sell the printer!

3. Economy print cycles - 32 pages/minute for black and 27 for color - save ink and electricity

4. "Closed loop" ink cartridge recycling program for EVERY returned cartridge

5. High yield print cartridges print twice the pages per cartridge (less raw materials, packaging, refills, and transportation costs)

6. Buy 5 cartridges, get 1 free AND return 5 cartridges, get 1 free

7. Wireless (I can work from any room in the house)

8. 4-in-1 includes handy fax, scan and copy functions will make Felicia at FINRA happy too.

9. Flat bed scanner allows me to scan directly from text books

10. Dirt cheap - all the bells and whistles were $119 at OfficeMax


By the way, the Lexmark X7675 Pro won CNET's coveted excellence rating! http://reviews.cnet.com/multifunction-devices/lexmark-x7675-pro/4505-3181_7-33264402.html.



As an aside, if you've been wondering whether to go laser or inkjet, here are some interesting comparisons. Inkjets traditionally use up to 90 percent less electricity than laser printers. On the other hand, the standard laser printer generally handles 3x more printing over its lifetime than the average inkjet (that's what makes the Lexmark's 5 year warranty so remarkable!).



I'm very excited about my new, green, $119 Lexmark printer! Did I say $119?

Check out Lexmark's corporate sustainability report here: http://www.lexmark.com/environment/EnvironmentalSustainabilityReport.pdf

Can you be both Clean AND Green?

It's kinda weird to say "harsh chemicals" and "clean" in the same breath. But harsh chemicals are traditionally what household cleaners use to get our living spaces clean. Get this: "The average American uses about 40 pounds of toxic household cleaning products each year. These cleaning products contain dangerous ingredients, including neurotoxins, carcinogens, allergens, central nervous system depressants, heavy metals, and other agents that cause or contribute to cancer, respiratory problems, reproductive abnormalities, allergic reactions, and behavioral problems, among other issues." http://charityguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/natural-cleaning-products.htm

That's depressing. I've run across a lot of articles discussing home-made cleaning supplies from common, safe ingredients I probably have around the house. But I don't have time for concocting my own products. Do you? And how much faith do you have in those products to do the job? I mean, if baking soda and vinegar worked, wouldn't we all still be using them? Or are we just brainwashed to think that we need turbo-charged cleaning and disinfecting power?

I'm not a lab, and I dunno, really. But lately I've been buying green alternatives. I've got some Seventh Generation products in my pantry, and even mainstream cleaning supply companies like Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive are getting into the act with green products. I admit it's hard to think "Clorox," which has always been synonomous to me with bleach, and "green" in the same breath, but read this http://www.greenworkspresskit.com/and feel better. Mainstream is becoming Greenstream!

Still, these products don't always do as good a job as the old, harsher brands. I'm still playing around with these products and will let you know when I come across something stellar. Right now I'm really liking these three products:

1. Clorox's "Green Works" Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner for my kitchen countertop surfaces

2. Safeway's reasonably-priced house brand, Bright Green, "Floor Care," which did a superb job of cleaning the vast expanse of white tile in my kitchen

3. Seventh Generation's Natural 2x Concentrate Laundry Liquid (concentrating the liquid saves on both packaging and shipping)

Here are the links for these product lines:

http://www.greenworkspresskit.com/

http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/BGBrightGreen-About

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/topic/green-cleaning

Here's a website for allergy sufferers on allergen-free cleaning, http://forum.allergyconsumerreview.com/about/

And the Department of Interior even has an opinion! http://www.doi.gov/greening/sustain/trad.html

Ok, ok. If anyone really does want to try their hand at making their own products, here's a page for you, too, Suzy Homemaker! http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm

Please, please - let me know which green cleaning products you like, and we'll keep testing and posting