When we started using 100% recycled Marcal Paper I wondered how it would be received by our employees and so far so good. No complaints about scratchy toilet paper, flimsy paper towels; Marcal's recycled paper products perform as well as the virgin paper products we used to use. And if you wonder if it has an impact; take a look at this info from Marcal:

Each and every day Marcal's recycling saves...6,000 trees - 2,000,000 gallons of water - 22,000 pounds of air pollution - 140,000 gallons of oil - 30,000 cubic feed of landfill space!

Every single day! And over the course of a year Marcal recycles more than 220,000 tons of paper. And they do it without using chlorine bleach.

I'm very proud to announce that the GSA has awarded a Federal Supply Schedule Contract to BuyOnlineNow. Our contract # GS-02F-0121T Schedule 75-200 for a  variety of office products includes brand names such as Avery, 3M, Bankers Box from Fellowes, Smead and more. As we're only days into this 5 year committment we've got lots to learn but I expect that there will be a lot more GSA stories in the future.

Ron Wallin, FireKing's National Sales Manager, spent the day here yesterday teaching us about FireKing's line of record protection files, safes & vaults. I had always thought of FireKing's products as fireproof files. Ron explained that "fireproof is only one feature of our products. Their real purpose is vital records protection; to protect a business's irreplaceable records from fire, theft, impact damage and explosions!" We were also surprised to learn that 59% of customers believe that their files are protected from fire if they are stored in a metal file cabinet. Ron explained that while the metal won't burn, that doesn't protect the papers inside from the heat of the fire, which can result in spontaneous combustion inside the cabinet.

Does it really matter if I get a little greener? That's a question I've asked myself and you may have too. To answer, I'd like to share some information from the Natural Resource Defense Council's web site (complete article here). 

If every household in the US bought 1 box each of 100% recycled facial tissues, toilet paper, paper towels & napkins (rather than products made from virgin fiber) more than 2 million trees could be saved annually.

Looks like doing just a little can help a lot. How many rolls of paper towels do you use every year? Rolls of toilet paper, boxes of facial tissue? Imagine how many trees could be saved if we all bought 100% recycled paper products.

If you're interested in trying any green household paper alternatives, we recommend Marcal Paper products. We carry more than 20 recycled Marcal Papers, all containing more than 30% post consumer waste. You can see our entire selection from Marcal Paper here.

And learn more about shopping green with the NRDC's Shopper's Guide to Home Tissue Products.

It looks like Pens and Markers are no longer just for writing.  These folks have come up with a very creative use for them called Pen-Spinning. Sometimes office supplies can be used for more than just one specific purpose.  Some of the more adept "spinners" take this very seriously. Apparently there are different tricks and even tournaments. This site explains how to modify a Pentel RSVP Pen to make it more conducive to spinning.

Check out the video to see these "Spinners" in action.