By not giving them away, you are condemning them to be wasted as surely as if you put them in the waste basket. Put them in the supply cabinet, or the interoffice mail, or even just near the coffee machine. Someone will want them and use them.
I’m reasonably paperless, but the rest of the school isn’t. I take in far more paper clips than I send out.
I try to maintain a solid balance of document-binding-implement trade, but I generally run a small deficit and have to go to the mail room to restock once every two weeks or so.
I run a massive bulldog clip deficit, though.
But how do you keep the cover sheet on your TPS report?
Rats, I miss-voted. I’m a digital archivist - papers and their accoutrement come to me, and leave via the shredder or the various cups on my desk (Can’t have them size-mixing, now, can we? Or binder clips with paperclips? Sheer anarchy) Its kind of fun seeking out people who need clips when my cups get full - like I’m Santa, bringing office supplies to the needy.
I’m a clip thief/hoarder.
I steal pretty, colored paper clips and binder clips that find their way to my desk. Then, I raid the supply cabinet for boring metal clips. Those go out, the pretty ones stay in my desk drawer, waiting for something important enough to be used on. That something will never come.
I voted that I’m an exporter but we use binder clips instead of paperclips, same idea though.
I never get any binder clips, they’re always leaving. Where do they go? Do our clients have barrels of binder clips strewn about? off to RFID tag some office supplies
Paper clip? What would I need that for? I try to keep all documents I need on the computer. If I print something out, it is usually to just mark-up some changes, and recycled. I am not sure I have used a paperclip in the 4+ years in this job.