Office equipment spans printers, copiers, scanners, paper workflows, and the workplace conditions that shape demand. The figures below cover the United States unless another geography or population is stated, and distinguish program estimates, survey measures, company results, and post-consumer waste data.
Key Office Equipment Statistics
The most useful headline figures include:
- In the current ENERGY STAR estimate for United States imaging equipment, all certified equipment would save more than $32 million in electricity costs each year.
- In the same current United States ENERGY STAR scenario, 596 million pounds of greenhouse-gas emissions would be avoided annually.
- ENERGY STAR says certified printers, copiers, and scanners can save up to 35% in energy compared with conventional equipment.
- ENERGY STAR guidance estimates that a typical office worker uses roughly 10,000 sheets of copy paper per year.
- In that typical-worker estimate, about 45% of the roughly 10,000 sheets reaches the recycling bin by the end of the day.
- ENERGY STAR estimates that 10% to 35% of printed pages are left at the printer and never picked up.
- In 2018, 67.4 million tons of paper and paperboard entered United States municipal solid waste generation.
- Paper and paperboard represented 23.1% of United States municipal solid waste generation in 2018.
- Approximately 46 million tons of paper and paperboard were recycled in the United States in 2018.
- The United States paper-and-paperboard recycling rate was 68.2% in 2018.
- Paper and paperboard sent to landfills totaled 17.2 million tons in the United States in 2018.
- Paper and paperboard generation reached 87.74 million tons in United States municipal solid waste in 2000.
- United States paper-and-paperboard recycling reached 45.97 million tons in 2018.
- Routine telework was allowed for 21.5% of United States office and administrative support workers in 2025.
- Office and administrative support workers spent 82.2% of the workday sitting on average in the United States in 2025.
- On-the-job training was required for 90.3% of United States office and administrative support workers in 2025.
- HP reported $17.338 billion in global Printing net revenue for fiscal 2024.
- HP Printing operating margin was 19.0% of segment revenue in fiscal 2024.
Contents:
- Energy use and efficiency
- Printing, paper use, and uncollected pages
- Paper waste, recycling, and disposal
- Office work and equipment demand
- HP printing business statistics
- Historical paper trends
Office Equipment Statistics: Energy Use and Efficiency
ENERGY STAR’s imaging-equipment figures describe printers, copiers, and scanners through a mixture of program estimates, product guidance, and capability requirements. They are useful for understanding the potential effect of efficient equipment, but they are not a representative survey of every office or an observed national billing total.
- ENERGY STAR estimates that certifying all United States imaging equipment would save more than $32 million in electricity costs per year.
- The same all-certified United States scenario is estimated to prevent 596 million pounds of greenhouse-gas emissions annually, an ENERGY STAR comparison equal to emissions from more than 57,000 vehicles.
- Certified printers, copiers, and scanners can save up to 35% versus conventional equipment, according to current ENERGY STAR certification guidance; the result varies by model and use profile.
- ENERGY STAR says certified scanners automatically turn off after four hours without usage, describing the cited automatic shut-off setting rather than a universal behavior for every scanner model.
The ENERGY STAR imaging-equipment product finder page names at least 10 major brands, including Ricoh, Canon, Brother, Epson, HP, Konica, OKI, Savin, and Xerox. That count is limited to brands named in the page text and is not the full catalog.
Source: ENERGY STAR, “Imaging Equipment”.
Office Printing Statistics: Paper Use, Duplexing, and Uncollected Pages
Paper demand is one of the clearest office-equipment measures in the supplied guidance, although ENERGY STAR presents these figures as typical or estimated workplace patterns rather than a national survey. The denominator for the recycling-bin estimate is the cited typical annual paper use.
- ENERGY STAR guidance puts typical office-worker copy-paper use at roughly 10,000 sheets per worker per year.
- About 45% of those roughly 10,000 sheets ends up in the recycling bin by the end of the day, according to the same guidance estimate.
- An estimated 10% to 35% of total printed pages are left at the printer and never picked up, with the range potentially varying by workplace and print-release practice.
These measures connect equipment configuration with workflow outcomes: duplexing, release controls, and print habits can affect the amount of paper consumed or abandoned. The figures do not quantify duplex adoption itself, so they should not be read as a duplexing rate.
Source: ENERGY STAR, “Imaging Equipment”.
Paper and Office Equipment Waste Statistics: Recycling and Disposal
The EPA’s 2018 figures cover post-consumer United States municipal solid waste and the broad paper-and-paperboard category, not office paper alone. They therefore provide a scale and disposal context for office printing materials rather than a direct measure of office equipment waste.
| 2018 United States paper and paperboard measure | Quantity or rate | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| MSW generation | 67.4 million tons | Post-consumer municipal solid waste |
| Share of total MSW generation | 23.1% | By weight |
| Recycled | Approximately 46 million tons | Paper and paperboard MSW |
| Recycling rate | 68.2% | Paper and paperboard MSW |
| Combustion with energy recovery | 4.2 million tons | Paper and paperboard MSW |
| Share of MSW combusted | 12.2% | Paper and paperboard |
| Landfilled | 17.2 million tons | Paper and paperboard MSW |
| Share of MSW landfilled | 11.8% | Paper and paperboard |
Within the same 2018 EPA categories, paper nondurable goods excluding newspapers had a 43.1% recycling rate, newspapers had a 64.8% rate, paper containers and packaging excluding corrugated boxes had a 20.8% rate, and corrugated boxes had a 96.5% rate. These categories are not directly comparable with office paper because they describe different material streams.
Source: EPA, “Paper and Paperboard: Material-Specific Data”.
Office and Administrative Work Statistics Relevant to Equipment Demand
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Requirements Survey describes the United States office and administrative support occupational group in 2025. These are workplace-context measures, not direct printer ownership, usage, or adoption statistics.
- Constant external verbal interaction was required for 40.3% of workers, while external verbal interaction more than once per hour but not constantly was required for 31.5%.
- Work schedules varied for 26.4% of workers, and routine telework was allowed for 21.5%.
- A supervisor was present in the immediate work area for 72.6% of workers, while supervising others was required for 8.4%.
- Prior work experience was required for 55.6% of workers, on-the-job training for 90.3%, and a high school diploma for 76.3%.
- Quiet noise exposure was present for 25.2% of workers, compared with moderate noise exposure for 74.2%.
- Speaking was required for more than 99.5% of workers, and frequent speaking was required for 45.2%.
- The ability to choose to sit or stand was available to 76.9% of workers; the group spent an average of 82.2% of the workday sitting and 17.8% standing.
- Driving was required for 8.5% of workers, while climbing structure-related ramps or stairs was required for 7.0%.
These figures help define the work settings in which office equipment operates, including shared offices, telework-eligible roles, and environments with different interaction and noise requirements. They should not be used to infer how many printers, copiers, or scanners those workers use.
Source: BLS, “Office and administrative support occupations”.
Printer and Office-Imaging Business Statistics from HP
HP’s fiscal results show the scale of one global company’s Printing segment, not the total office-equipment market. The fiscal years ended October 31, and the figures are company-reported results from HP’s Form 10-K.
| HP global Printing segment | Fiscal 2022 | Fiscal 2023 | Fiscal 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net revenue | $18.902 billion | $18.029 billion | $17.338 billion |
| Earnings from operations | $3.619 billion | $3.399 billion | $3.290 billion |
| Operating margin | — | — | 19.0% |
HP reported total fiscal-2024 net revenue of $53.559 billion, including $50.453 billion from products and $3.106 billion from services. Those totals cover all HP operations and are not office equipment alone.
Source: HP Inc., 2024 Form 10-K.
Historical Paper and Paperboard Trends for Office-Related Materials
EPA’s historical table uses the same broad United States paper-and-paperboard municipal-solid-waste category. The series is useful for long-run context, but it does not isolate office paper or attribute changes to printers, copiers, scanners, digitization, or any other single cause.
| Year | Paper and paperboard generated | Paper and paperboard recycled |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 29.99 million tons | 5.08 million tons |
| 1970 | 44.31 million tons | 6.77 million tons |
| 1980 | 55.16 million tons | 11.74 million tons |
| 1990 | 72.73 million tons | 20.23 million tons |
| 2000 | 87.74 million tons | 37.56 million tons |
| 2005 | 84.84 million tons | 41.96 million tons |
| 2010 | 71.31 million tons | 44.57 million tons |
| 2015 | 68.05 million tons | 45.32 million tons |
| 2017 | 67.01 million tons | 44.17 million tons |
| 2018 | 67.39 million tons | 45.97 million tons |
The historical series shows generation rising from 29.99 million tons in 1960 to 87.74 million tons in 2000 before reaching 67.39 million tons in 2018, while recycling increased from 5.08 million tons in 1960 to 45.97 million tons in 2018. These are EPA estimates with stated year labels and management pathways, and they include paper products beyond office use.
Source: EPA, “Paper and Paperboard: Material-Specific Data”.