Less Paper Means More Money
Think about how many things are made from paper: books, magazines, newspapers, toilet paper, paper towels, notebook, and maps. Think about how much paper is used at a university alone for things like text books, syllabuses, hand-outs of various kinds, flyers for events, and student essays. What if universities decided to make everything available online or in some other electronic manner, paperless? What if Cal Poly used a minimal amount of paper and communicated the majority of information through the marquee and the Cal Poly Portal? What if the Social Sciences department could lead Cal Poly in a paperless communication revolution? I am a Social Sciences third year and would love to see my department take an active role in changing the way Cal Poly communicates with students. This can be achieved through less paper consumption and conscious consumerism by buying recycled paper.
I wanted to understand why recycled paper is better than non-recycled paper, so I looked up the process of making paper and found that it involves wood from trees, water and energy. Most of the time, the trees come from a tree farm, but sometimes paper companies use trees from natural forests. The paper-making process requires logs from trees to be washed, chopped into chips, sorted, turned into pulp and mixed with water as well as bleach and sometimes other chemicals, then pressed into wire grids to make paper, and finally pressed and rolled through heating devices to dry it out (www.tappi.org). This uses a tremendous amount of energy and has a harmful affect on the environment.
Knowing the harmful process of making paper I wanted to discover the economic impact that buying 100% recycled paper would have on my department. I went into building 47 room 13 and talked to the departmentÕs support assistant, Karen Moro who orders the paper and office supplies every year for the department. Cal Poly has a contract with Office Max that runs for two years at a time, and through this contract and mass buying of office supplies, Cal Poly receives a large discount (Karen Moro). Ms. Moro looked back through some records she had for the paper she bought from January 2007 to January 2008 and found that she bought thirty reams of paper every month. One ream of paper consists of 500 sheets, and thirty reams are ordered every month, that adds up to 15,000 sheets of paper per month on average are ordered and used. For an entire year of paper ordering and usage, the total comes to 180,000 sheets of paper per year for the social sciences department alone. Each order of thirty reams of paper cost roughly $93.00, so the cost for twelve months is $1,116.00 (Karen Moro). I was not able to find out the cost of paper for the whole university because each college and separate department handles their own paper purchasing. Something interesting though is that the student population at Cal Poly is 18,000 plus students, and in the social sciences department there are 250 students, 1.4% of the total university population. The social sciences department is spending $1,160.00 on 250 students for just paper. If Cal Poly spent $1200.00 on every 250 students for paper, the university would be spending $86,400.00 on paper alone! Think of what that money could be used for instead of paper that would benefit the students and the environment.
I wanted to discover the environmental implications this could have. So I went to http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Paper/Recycled/ and on the website there is a paper calculator where you can input the type of paper, how much is used and what percentage of the paper is recycled. To compare different types of paper, the paper must be measured by tons or pounds. Office Max listed both the 30% recycled and the 100% recycled as being around 21 pounds per ream. The results that came out is that by buying the recycled paper, per year 67 trees would be saved, which translates into 10 tons of wood, which would save the equivalent of one carÕs worth of CO2 emissions (paper calculator). By simply switching to 100% recycled paper, even if the department uses the same amount, they would be saving 67 trees. This is just the social sciences department!
Paper is still a necessity in some situations, and using 100% recycled paper in those situations is better for the environment; Recycled paper is simply taking paper that has been used already and making it into pulp again and pressing it into paper, a process that does not use any trees and uses 80% less water than non-recycled paper, 65% less energy, and 95% less air pollution (earth911.org). So would it be better for the universityÕs budget? With Cal PolyÕs contract with Office Max, the university gets a 38% discount off paper when they purchase it (www.afd.calpoly.edu/purchasing). I went onto www.officemaxsolutions.com and logged in with Cal PolyÕs username and password that they give on a public website at http://www.afd.calpoly.edu/purchasing/WaystoPurchaseGoods.htm, and I checked to see how much multi-use copy paper costs. I found that per ream of paper, the discounted cost is $3.09, which would add up to the $93.00 per thirty reams that Karen said the department pays. While searching for the cost of the paper, I also discovered that Office MaxÕs standard paper is 30% post-consumer content, which means it is 30% recycled (www.maxbuyer.officemax.com). So the paper being bought by Cal Poly and the Social Sciences department is slightly sustainable, but not entirely. I moved on to look at the paper Office Max has that is 100% post-consumer content and found the discounted cost for one ream is $3.97, only $0.88 more than paper that is only 30% recycled. The cost of 100% recycled paper per 30 reams is $119.10, a mere $26.00 difference per month.
While unable to find how much the university spends on paper as a whole, I did find that the university has a contract that states ÒRecycled Content Certification: Contractor agrees to certify in writing, under penalty of perjury, the minimum, if not the exact, percentage of recycled content material, as defined in Sections 12161 and 12200 of the Public Contract Code, in materials, goods, or supplies used in the performance of this Contract.Ó (www.afd.calpoly.edu/purchasing/forms). So Cal Poly is aware and concerned about their office supplies being sustainable!
From looking at the different websites I found that 100% recycled paper is not much more expensive than 30% recycled paper, in fact for my department it is only $26.00 per month more, which is $313.20 per year. If the Social Sciences department, can switch to 100% recycled paper, cut the amount of paper being used by 25%-40% and then access blackboard or other online communication sites to get information out to the students, they would save between $357.30-$571.68 per year. We live in an electronic and digital age, and here is a positive way for us to take advantage of that! Some of my professors from the social sciences department have taken advantage of blackboard to communicate with their students. Blackboard is a great website where a professor can post their syllabus, assignments, lectures, and even conduct tests. My Anthropology 250 class with Dr. Stacy Rucas is conducted entirely paperless. I personally like the class that way because I go to one specific location online to access everything for the class. More than just blackboard can be used for an online tool to communicate to students.
I talked to several university students to see what they feel about paper versus paperless communication. One student who goes to Chico State says the Chico is nearly all paperless and she likes it that way because it is more sustainable and paper is not being wasted. A social science second year at Cal Poly says that it is a great idea for the university to go paperless, but they should have more free internet stations at school because not everyone has access to internet outside of school. I feel the benefits of paperless communication would be great for professors too; they would have to carry less paper with them, and they would be able to access their own work along with their studentsÕ work on the internet, provided one single place for them to find any of their work instead of having to search through paper files.
My proposal to the social sciences department is this: cut paper use by 25%, so instead of using 360 reams of paper per year, use 216-270, and use 100% post-consumer content paper so that no more trees are used to make the paper. Using less paper will make up for the extra cost of 100% recycled paper. As stated earlier, it would cost $26.00 more per month for 100% recycled paper, but if my department uses 25%-40% less paper, then the cost would be $1071.90 for 270 reams per year or $857.52 for 216 reams per year. This would mean a savings of $88.10-$302.48 per year for the social sciences department. While using less paper, the department can also use the internet to communicate with students as much as possible. These would great steps to support the sustainable effort at Cal Poly.
Resources
1. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Paper/Recycled/
3. http://www.facilities.calpoly.edu/recycle/pages/index.htm
4. Karen Moro, support assistant for Social Sciences Department
5. http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/paperMade.htm
6. http://www.afd.calpoly.edu/purchasing/forms/Blist%20discount.pdf
8. http://earth911.org/energy/energy-costs-and-conservation-facts/