Reducing

Paper Usage
In Schools
By: Victoria Morrissey

Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.

Introduction
Position
Opposing Position
History of the Problem
a. How did it develop?
b. How was it discovered?
c. What have other parties done to help solve this issue?
d. What are the relevant laws and treaties?
5. Causes of the Problem
6. Consequences of the Problem
a. Present
b. Future
7. Proposed Solutions to the Problem
a. Action plan
8. Conclusion
9. Pictures, Graphs, and Tables
10. Works Cited Page

The environmental impact of paper is very significant. Over the years as technology is increasing,
there have been many changes and new discoveries in the field of paper by both industries and personal
uses. However, the large paper consumption of people and businesses has led to a high level of waste and
environmental concerns. Specifically, schools are large users of paper and have been for many years.
Schools are a substantial step of helping to reduce our paper usage. Schools need to be smart, and reduce
their usage amounts to encourage society to follow. The following paper, graphs and information will
provide an explanation of why tremendous paper usage in schools is being considered an environmental
concern.

My personal position on the issue of reducing paper usage in schools is that schools do, in fact
need to reduce their paper consumption in order to help better the environment. Schools need to start

being mindful of their paper usage because they have no idea how much it is affecting the environment
through factors such as deforestation, carbon emissions, and waste landfills that pollute our air. Most
paper that is used in schools, is used only for a temporary time after being printed and is then thrown
away. There are many teaching programs and tools online that can be utilized rather than typical pen and
paper, or textbook teaching styles which can greatly reduce paper usage. Not only should schools reduce
their paper use, but for the necessary papers, they should reuse and always recycle to try and reduce the
harm of paper to the environment. I believe that just by doing small things we can help our environment.
Since schools are major consumers of papers, starting good habits at schools, will encourage reducing our
paper consumptions in our own lives which will further the campaign. People who have different ideas on
this issue need to understand the harm that paper usage does to the environment. Billions of trees are being
cut down every year, and when these trees are being cut down we are encouraging deforestation; which is
decreases the amount of trees and forests around the world which limits how much clean oxygen is put
into the air. When trees are cut down, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increase because usually
trees take in excess carbon dioxide and provide oxygen in exchange.

An equally significant position of this topic does exist. As a contrary argument, some people do not
believe that lessening the amount of paper schools is not important and is not necessary. There are many
people who do not see environmental issues as big problems, even though we all live on the same Earth
and all need to care for it. Many people with this position are just lazy and do not care if trees are being
cut down because it does not directly affect them. Also, other critics from a more educational standpoint
say that students learn better when using pen and paper rather than online sources.

As with all environmental concerns, there is a history to when the problem was realized. The issue
of schools having a large paper consumption was only recently discovered as we had been using large

amounts of paper in schools for years without a thought as to how it could be harming us and our
environment. The discovery that extreme utilization of paper as a problem and that it can harm our
environment was discovered in the past decade or two especially. There were articles being written in
magazines like Time revealing the new information. Scientists were beginning to realize that when we are
cutting down so many trees annually we are increasing the carbon emissions in the atmosphere since there
are not as many trees to take in the carbon dioxide and give off the oxygen that we need to live.
Since the problem has been discovered, there have been many environmental parties as well as
businesses and normal people who have been trying to encourage paper reduction efforts globally. A
number of companies, including General Electric, Home Depot, Ford Motor, BP and Wal-Mart Stores,
have been putting greater emphasis on reducing the environmental impact of their products. One party
who is trying to help solve this issue is the Paper Working Group. As of 2006, Time Inc. was the only
media company that is a member of the Paper Working Group, which also includes McDonalds,
Starbucks and Bank of America. One way companies can become carbon neutral is to buy offsets is to
guarantees that carbon-lowering actions like planting trees will take place to make up for greenhouse
emissions. If Time Inc., for example, wanted to buy offsets to make up for the emissions from Time
magazine, it would cost about $2,500 weekly. Times study found that an average copy of Time caused
about 0.29 pound of greenhouse gas emissions.
Recently, more campaigns have risen up to help the issue such as theEnvironmental Paper
Network, the Green Schools Initiative and Conservatree who all support the position to reduce paper
usage in schools. Green Schools Initiative gives assistance through their website to encourage schools
and students in their own lives to attempt to make thing easier for people. The website is full of tips,
reasons, and ways to limit our paper intake. It gives schools ideas on how to function more efficiently,
through the help of programs and other initiatives. The Environmental Paper Network has has supporting

affiliates inside their campaign including Canopy, Climateforschools.org, the NRCD, Green Press
Initiative and Conservatree who for example is a company involved with the Environmental Paper
Network and their goals are to motivate schools and offices to purchase recycled paper goods.
There are a few relevant laws and treaties associated with decreasing paper usage in schools. One
is the Paperwork Reduction act that was created in 1980. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 is a
United States federal law enacted in 1980 created to reduce the total paperwork burden the federal
government imposes on private businesses and citizens. The Act imposes requirements on agencies that
wish to collect information from the public. It also established the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and allowed this new agency to
oversee federal agencies' collection of information from the public and to establish information policies.
From this, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, was created and confirmed that the OIRA's authority
extended over not only agency orders to provide information to the government, but also agency orders to
provide information to the public.

As with most issues, there are causes and effects to everything. The causes to this problem are
things we have been doing forever without thinking twice. Deemed causes to the issue of large paper
consumption in schools is that we were allowing billions of trees to be cut down annually for a long time
without realizing the true harm until the past decade or two. Causes of this problem are we have been
encouraging deforestation for so long, that now we are realizing that we need to conserve non-renewable
resources because they are not easy to get back. Each year, when we are cutting down billions of trees for
paper usage that is increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which is not good for us. We are
limiting our clean oxygen that is necessary to breath, and we are increasing the carbon emissions, as there
is not as many trees to take in the carbon dioxide. If years ago, we were more cautious and did not just
destroy forests and trees for no reason we could have less problems because we would not be seeing these

issues in the environment. Predictions for around 50 years or more in the future say that rainforests may be
completely destroyed.

Therefore, there are many consequences of this issue and will be in the future as well if the
problem is not fixed soon. Consequences of the issue now include deforestation, which leads to loss of
biodiversity, increased greenhouse emissions, increased soil erosion, decreases clean oxygen, and destroys
natural beauty of an area. As of now, Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but
swaths the size of Panama are lost each and every year. If this trend continues, in the future there will be a
very small amount of forests left of Earth. Future consequences, over the next 5, 10, 15, or 20 years will
be devastating. If the matter is not resolved, conditions will continue to worsen. There are predictions that
the economy will worsen as deforestation worsens, as trees are something used a lot. It is believed that the
surface temperature in higher latitudes will continue to rise higher which is very bad for many habitats and
people. The opposite is predicted for lower latitudes, that the surface temperature will continuously
decrease which will cause many issues.

Therefore, in order to try and fix the problems that large paper consumption causes we should try
to find solutions to help the issue. We need to develop an action plan to aid the matter. There are multiple
components that should be taken action in order to fix the problem.
Initially, schools should adopt a Paper Usage Reduction policy and make the intention well
known. The first way to help is to overall, make the school reduce its paper usage. Schools can limit how
much paper is being used in many ways; such as using online teaching platforms to find class-material like
textbooks and teaching programs, as well as have students type and submit homework or classwork
through programs like google classroom. Additionally, when documents or papers must be printed,
schools should follow the minus one method, reducing the size of their font by at least 1 to conserve how

much is printed, papers should also be printed double sided with margins properly set. Signs should be put
by printers and copiers displaying these ideas. Also, schools can use hand dryers rather than paper towels
in the bathroom to save paper. Furthermore, in the classrooms there should be restraints on the amounts
that teachers and students can print per day/week/month as a way to sustain how much is printed. Teachers
and students should be using whiteboards and chalkboards instead of handouts, and students should be
allowed to take notes online.
Following that, schools can increase their efforts by reusing the required paper. This can be done
by; reusing paper multiple times until the whole thing is used, in ways like draft paper or note paper.
Schools can choose paper products including paper towels, office paper, and napkins that come from
recycled material. Schools should also start a material exchange for paper, unwanted paper; and other
items. Likewise, in the classroom, teachers can print class copies and make students return them so they
can be used for other classes. Teachers can do small things such as using old cardboard boxes for storage
and filling the fax machines with paper already used on one side, or use paper-less fax.
In addition, of the paper that must be printed, schools should always recycle to help the efforts.
Schools should have recycling bins placed all around and encourage students to recycle paper materials.
Easily accessible recycling bins should be in all hallways, offices, libraries, study areas, and classrooms.

To conclude, extreme paper consumption is a real environmental concern. This essay hopefully has
shown the positions on both sides of this issue. As well as the history of the problem, as in how it
developed, how it was discovered, who has tried to help and how, as well as causes, and the consequences
of now and potentially the future. Included as well, are proposed solutions to the problem. My hopes are
that from this paper, you understand the real issue behind how much paper in schools and the real harm it
is causing for us, our future, and our planet.

Chart displaying deforestation rates from 2000-2005

Statistics about Deforestation

This is a chart showing average paper consumption per person, per year in 15 countries

This is a graph showing the amount of cases of paper that Clark University consumed from 2002-2006

Works Cited Page

Bily, Cynthia A. Global Warming. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2006. Print.
"Changing Paper Consumption." Green Schools Initiative : Changing Paper Consumption. Web. 09 May
2016.
"Conservatree - Recycled and Environmental Paper Information." Conservatree - Recycled and
Environmental Paper Information. Web. 10 May 2016.
"Deforestation - Causes, Effects and Solutions - Conserve Energy Future."ConserveEnergyFuture. 2013.
Web. 12 May 2016.
"Deforestation Facts, Deforestation Information, Effects of Deforestation - National Geographic."
National Geographic. Web. 12 May 2016.
Gpo. Web. 12 May 2016. <https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-104publ13/html/PLAW104publ13.htm>.
"Green Schools Initiative : Changing Paper Consumption." Green Schools Initiative : Changing Paper
Consumption. Web. 12 May 2016.
"How to Save Paper in School." 3 Ways to Save Paper in School. Web. 11 May 2016.
<http://m.wikihow.com/Save-Paper-in-School>.
"Is Digital Media Worse for the Environment Than Print?" MediaShift Is Digital Media Worse for the
Environment Than Print Comments. Web. 11 May 2016. http://mediashift.org/2010/03/is-digital-mediaworse-for-the-environment-than-print090/>.
NYSDEC. "Your School Can." New York State Department of Conservation. Web. 09 May 2016.
Owens, Caleb. Deforestation. Chanhassen, MN: Child's World, 1999. Print.

Philander, S. George. Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change. Los Angeles: SAGE,
2008. Print.
"Paper Use Reduction in Schools." Nerc.org. Web. 10 May 2016.
<https://nerc.org/documents/schools/PaperUseReductionInSchools.pdf>.
"Paperwork Reduction Act." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 12 May 2016.
Real Life Teens: Teens and Global Warming. TMW Media Group, 2009.
Story, Louise. "The Hidden Life of Paper and Its Impact on the Environment." Time 25 Oct. 2006. Print.