Reduce paper waste in the schools

With school starting up soon (or in some cases it’s already started) it’s important to consider the impact paper use in school has.

According to Conservatree, you can estimate that…

• 1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
• 1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
• A “pallet” of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton. Therefore,
• 1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses .6 trees
• 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets
• 1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree (and those add up quickly!)

Most schools most definitely use more than 8,333 sheets of paper a year. The Census Bureau estimated that there were 36.8 million children of elementary school age in 2003. That, of course was years ago. Even if you estimate that each of these kids use just ten sheets of paper each a year (way under what kids really use, not to mention the teachers and staff), that’s 360,000,000 sheets (720,000 reams) and a whole heaping amount of trees. So cutting back is essential if we want thriving forests.

What your school should be doing:

• Using recycled paper products.
• Using message boards and blackboards for basic staff and kids messages vs. paper memos.
• Using both sides of the paper for assignments, quizzes, homework, and more.
• Using email options for parents vs. paper newsletters.
• Using air hand dryers in the bathroom vs. paper towels.
• Using recycled toilet paper in the bathrooms.
• Using recycled paper napkins and paper towels in the lunchroom.
• Using computers for work or erasable and rewritable boards vs. paper all the time.
• Paper recycling bins should be placed in each classroom, the school office, the library, and in common areas. Plus kids and staff need to know how to use them.

If your school is not on board with reducing paper waste:

Talk to staff at your child’s school and talk to other parents with kids who attend. Let them know about the implications of cutting down too many trees vs. the pros of keeping those trees around. Talk about the cost savings to the school when waste is reduced. Send your own child to school with eco-friendly school supplies including recycled paper products.

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