Does digital printing produce less waste than offset printing?

For short runs, yes. Digital printing skips the plate-making and press setup (makeready) that offset requires, and that setup is where a lot of offset paper waste happens.

• Makeready waste on offset jobs can run 5 to 15 percent of total paper used, mostly during setup sheets and color balancing.
• Digital presses need no plates and almost no setup, so they can produce final, sellable prints right away.
• That makes digital far more efficient for small and medium quantities.
• Offset still wins on very large runs, where the per-piece cost drops once the press is dialed in and the setup waste is spread across many thousands of copies.

The greenest choice depends on quantity: digital for short runs, offset for high-volume jobs. A good printer matches the method to the job size rather than forcing every order onto one press.