Despite companies’ efforts to cut costs and be more environmentally friendly — and a higher environmental awareness in general — most folks are reluctant to change their behavior, at least when it comes to printing at work.

That’s the upshot of a recent survey of 1,000 UK office employees conducted by Kyocera and consultancy firm Loudhouse.

In the past 12 months, 40% of workers haven’t changed the amount of paper they print, according to the survey. Just 22% have reduced their paper use, and 37% are actually printing more now than they were a year ago.

The average employee prints a whopping 45 sheets a day, or about 10,000 a year. Of those, the report estimates 6,800 could be considered unnecessary, including 2,100 extra pages that get printed because employees don’t use double-sided printing.

One reason employees haven’t taken steps to curb that waste: a lack of a formal policy from their employers. Just under half (46%) of employers have “loose guidelines related to printing,” compared to just 24% that have a formal written policy.

The new Kyocera TASKalfa 181 ($2,535 list) prints and copies in black-and-white at 18ppm, while the TASKalfa 221 ($2,900 list) runs at 22ppm. Both machines handle 11″ x 17″ paper. Except for price and speed, they are identical.

A 300-sheet paper tray and a 100-sheet bypass come standard. You can add up to three 300-sheet paper trays for a maximum of 1,300 pages.

You can add an internal stapler that performs 30-page single-position stapling and holds up to 500 sheets. The 50-sheet reversing document feeder (RADF) and automatic duplex output are optional.

The standard print function supports PCL, PostScript, and Kyocera’s own PRESCRIBE printing languages.

The optional scanning function features scan-to-email and TWAIN scanning.

The faxing option is based on a 33.6kbps modem that includes JBIG compression. Network fax is supported, as is secure fax.

These machines combine reasonable base cost with features at their speed level that few copiers can match. Be careful in comparing price, however, as scanning is an add-on function.

For a full review and information on other similar products, see the Better Buys for Business Office Copier & Multifunctional Guide.

Kyocera’s new TASKalfa line of color copier-multifunctionals is based on a clean-sheet design, not merely upgrades of an older generation of Kyocera models. All of these models come with standard copy, print, and scan. Fax and network fax from a workstation are options, as is Internet fax.

The new machines are the TASKalfa 250ci (25ppm in color and black-and-white), 300ci (30ppm), 400ci (40ppm), and 500ci (50ppm).

You can select either a reversing document feeder (RADF) for $1,360 or a duplexing feeder (DADF) for $1,800.

There’s an 8.5″ color touchscreen. Kyocera also features a new programming interface — dubbed Hybrid Platform Advanced Solutions, or HyPAS — for developing software for the control panel. This interface can accept device-level Java-based applications or Web services targeted at the server level.

These are the first models to use Kyocera’s new microfine toner that also promises higher yield levels and better quality output. The company is also reportedly announcing a new standard dealer warranty of three years on these TASKalfa MFPs, a big upgrade from the three-month warranties standard on copiers (you normally have to buy an extended warranty).

For a full review, see the Better Buys 2009 Color Printer Multifunctional Guide.

And while Kyocera list prices are higher than those of the competition, they always have a cost-per-page proposition that is among the best in the business.

That’s true for Kyocera’s entry-level monochrome lasers, the 30ppm FS-1100 and FS-1300D. And though the 30ppm speed used to be typical of medium-sized workgroup models, these two come as desktop printers that can be upgraded with a network card to serve a small workgroup.

The FS-1100 sells for a list price of $316, while the FS-1300D sells for $530. The two models are based on the same platform, but the FS-1300D has a larger optional paper supply, standard duplexing and different supplies.

Kyocera uses a separate drum unit that’s rated for 100,000 pages for both of these models. The FS-1100 uses a 4,000-page toner supply that produces a page for about 1.8 cents. That’s excellent for a desktop printer, since competitive models approach 3.0 cents or more.

The deal for the FS-1300D is even better, with a 7,200-page toner-only cartridge that will run about 1.2 cent per page. That’s a cost per page you can only find on competitors’ highest-speed departmental models and, of course, on other Kyocera models.

For a full review, see the Better Buys for Business Office Printer Guide.