How do I count makeready paper waste in a print job's footprint?
Charge each job with the paper it actually consumed, good sheets plus makeready and spoilage. Use the press log for sheets run, multiply by sheet weight, and apply the paper factor to the total, not just to the delivered copies.
The method
- Sheets fed for the job, including makeready, from the press counter or job ticket.
- Sheet weight from size and grammage.
- Tonnes times the paper factor per tonne, plus the job's share of press energy.
Why it matters
Short runs carry more waste per copy. A figure that ignores makeready understates short jobs and makes long runs look worse by comparison.
Waste sold for recycling
Selling trimmings and spoilage to a recycler does not reduce the job's paper use; it is reported separately, in category 5 only for disposal you pay for.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.