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Environmental Studies Department
Olin Rice 249
1600 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
651-696-6274
Comments & questions to:
esson@macalester.edu
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Campus Paper Use
By Katrina Dillon-Fish
May 2002
For three years, the Environmental Studies Program has researched paper use and waste at Macalester. The previous reports all cited the steps Macalester must take to reduce paper use throughout the school. The ongoing research and reports generated by the environmental studies department did not fall on deaf ears, and through the efforts of the staff and students at Macalester, most steps that can be taken to reduce paper use at basic level have been taken. The library staff and workers around campus have made it very easy for the average student to reduce their personal paper usage. The library has installed numerous signs by all printer stations and around the computer labs urging students to use double-sided printing and informing them where to find the directions of how to do this. The use of e-reserves give the student electronic alternatives to printing or copying texts they need. Plus the use of email as a communication method has cut back on paper use by all students, staff, and academic departments in general. There are recycling bins in every computer lab, in the student post office area, and almost everywhere you look around campus. Finally, the new copy machines installed in the library have double-sided printing as their default setting. This has put Macalester in the position to test whether or not the student body wants to further reduce paper use or not. Macalester students have answered yes, for the most part.
Jeff Jeffers from Purchasing stated in an interview that Macalester had experienced rising paper use for years until three years ago when use leveled off and remained steady. This was a dramatic event for paper use at Macalester.
Currently, Macalester uses about 300,000 sheets of white paper (the typical paper you would use in a printer) per month. While this sounds like a staggering amount, Jeffers estimates it to be the sustainable amount of paper use for the college given current procedures. The library is currently the largest user of paper on campus (attributed mostly to the high use of the library printers by students), followed by the alumni office, admissions, campus programs, and residential life. Currently, these administrative and student support areas use much more paper than any of the academic departments.
Jeffers speculates that the only way to dramatically reduce paper usage beyond what has currently been accomplished is to charge students every time they print. While this may seem to be a reasonable solution to prevent paper waste, most Macalester students, staff, and departments are against such an idea. Jeffers points out how expensive the school is already and, therefore, how extreme the idea of charging students for paper might seem to be. In a recent survey conducted by the 2002 environmental audit group, students stated how regressive paper charges would be to the student body. Students who were well off would have no problem paying for their paper use, while students who were already struggling financially would be hurt by this policy.
There are still some changes to be made, however, that would help reduce paper use on a smaller scale. Many professors do no accept reused paper or double-sided paper when students turn in assignments. They consider it unprofessional or claim it is difficult to read. If professors made it clear to all students that double-sided papers and homework assignments were not only accepted, but encouraged, that would help reduce paper use and encourage students who had never considered reducing their use to think about why their professor was encouraging them to limit their printing. While paper use may have leveled off over the last three years, thanks to the electronic era, there are still some simple steps the academic departments can take to bring the message of limiting paper use to all students.
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