Need to Fax Internationally?

While there are many fax-to-email services that don’t require the usage of paper, numerous businesses within first world countries still rely heavily upon fax machines. By taking a look at specific data related to fax machine usage, it becomes apparent that using a fax machine has many environmental drawbacks.
Fax Machines are not Eco-Friendly
It is estimated that 12,500 pieces of blank paper can be produced from one single tree (techsoup.org). Even though this amount seems rather large, it pales in comparison to the 210 billion pieces of paper that are used to send faxes within the United States each year – not to mention other first world countries!
Other interesting eco-statistics include:
• 95% of office paper used within the United States will not be recycled.
• It takes 4 trees on an annual basis to meet the needs of fax machines within one large U.S. based company .
• More than 17 million trees are annually cut down in order to produce enough paper for the United States alone.
Even though the United States is a large offender of environmental damage caused by fax machine usage, it is not the worst first world offender.
Number of Fax Machines per Country
Presently, there are 16 countries that can be considered first world countries. The majority of these countries still use fax machine technology on a regular basis. According to a recent poll conducted by NationMaster.com, Japan, the United States, and Germany have the most fax machines per 1,000 people.
Below, you’ll find the number of fax machines in each country per 1,000 people:
• Japan: 93.31
• United States: 55.28
• Germany: 45.55
• Sweden: 41.63
• Denmark: 39.23
• Norway: 36.04
• France: 32.44
When these statistics are carefully considered, the amount of environmental waste caused by fax machines in first world countries is astronomical – especially when you consider that Japan alone has approximately 128 million people!
What Can Be Done
It may take awhile for most companies and individuals within first world countries to reduce fax machine usage. Still, there is one viable alternative to a traditional fax machine: fax-to-email services. These services allow companies to email documents that would otherwise be faxed.
In addition, a fax-to-email service also allows a receiving company to print and file each document (on recycled paper!). Even though this step may seem like a small one, the amount of environmental waste can be greatly reduced by switching from a standard fax machine to a fax-to-email option.

Before sending a fax internationally using a fax machine, we recommend you sign up for an online fax to email service, which will eliminate any costly long-distance fees associated with faxing internationally. Learn more about these cost-saving fax solutions.

Sending faxes internationally only requires dialing a few more digits than sending a non-international fax. International faxing only requires that the sender dial into the international network and dial the country code, and after that a normal fax number is dialed.  It’s much like adding an area code to a phone number, only in this case it is the country code. Below are the steps to complete an international fax:

To Send an International Fax:
1.)   First dial 011 (if sending from North America) or 010 (If sending from Europe) to access the international network.  Be sure that any fax machine you are using has international coverage provided for the fax account.
2.)   The next step is to dial the country code. To find the country code for any country, use this helpful  website http://www.countrycodes.com/. It has a generator that will show the number prefixes of any international fax you wish to send to any country.
3.)   Dial the number of the fax machine you’re dialing. (This includes the city code and the phone number, which isn’t always 7 digits long).
4.) Press Send!

For example, to send an international fax to Algeria dial:

+011(International Network)-213(Algeria Country Code)-7(Adrar City Code)-12456(Number)

Another great step by step resource to send an international fax is http://www.howtocall.info/, which produces the entire number needed to be dialed for any country and city.

The biggest cost to sending faxes is the fax machine itself. In the era of email and other forms of communication, it is a hassle to invest money in a machine that is used less and less.  Once in awhile an employer or agency will require you to fax a document, but that itself is not reason enough to buy a fax machine.  That’s why the cheapest way to send international faxes is through your computer, and they range in price from reasonable to free.

There are a number of service providers that allow PC users to upload pdf and word documents (and sometimes cell phone pictures) to their website to be faxed. This cuts out the price of the machine and instead charges customers expected rates and can even provide an incoming fax number.

Here are some of the options:

E-Fax – This service is perfect for consumers looking to send faxes more frequently. A monthly membership for the smallest package is $14.13. Someone with this membership gets 130 received faxes and 30 free sending faxes. Learn more about EFax here

Myfax – Myfax has a 30-day trial before you need to subscribe to their service, and also has a $10 monthly fee for 200 incoming 100 outgoing messages. It also allows up to 2 pages (10 pages each per day) for free for non-members. Learn more about MyFax here

The bottom line is international faxing no longer requires an investment in a physical machine and inheriting all the problems of that fax machine. Rather, the much cheaper (and sometimes free) option is online faxing for your international faxes.