It is time to change our habit of wasting paper

Every month, 100,000 sheets of A4 paper are purchased in the Middle and High school. That is a lot; yet too much population of SMIC remains indifferent to the detrimental environmental effects of wasting paper seeing we rarely recycle or attempt to use less paper.

“I don’t think recycling is present in SMIC,” agreed Yuhan Chen (10A). “Many teachers give a lot of packets, and [those paper] basically go to waste after the school year.” Al Cheng (12C) also added, “We deal with paper waste poorly. You see recycling efforts but in the end, most of the paper goes to trash cans.”

Some school regulations, however, make it a challenge for teachers to reduce the use of papers. Dr. Peter Griffin, the Environmental Club director and the teacher of AP Environmental Science and Environmental Issues, reported that the school allows each faculty member order a bag of papers (200 sheets per bag) only twice a month. This regulation encourages many teachers to order more than they will actually expend to prevent running out of papers for future assignments. As a result, teachers often have unused reams of paper stacked in their offices. Moreover, Dr. Griffin pointed out that “there’s one tiny shredder in the Teacher’s Lounge that I’ve never seen anyone use. Once a semester, Mrs. Bates, [the SA director], hires a shredding company to come around, and teachers put the old tests. The problem is if you miss that day, then you have to wait another six months for shred your papers.” Consequently, teachers generally find it difficult to recycle papers with confidential information like quizzes and tests.

Yet SMIC’s mass consumption of paper is not just on the administration and the faculty. Students’ lack of interest in creating an eco-friendly environment is another factor. Jason Kim (12A) commented, “I think the students know the purpose of recycling papers, but in reality, students just don’t care.”

That is not to discredit the recycling efforts of some students, teachers, and administrators. Our Journalism class, at the suggestion of Academic Affairs Director, Mr. Patrick Carroll, transitioned to online news this year, and geared away from printing 700 copies of the poster-sized newspaper (8-16 pages per issue) every nine months. This way, we stopped producing around 20 to 30,000 pieces of non-recycled poster-sized paper every school year.

Also, the Environmental Club sorts out papers – contributed by the faculty – every Friday after school. Tony Sim (10C), a member of the Environmental Club, shared the procedures, “We sort out reusable A4 papers from the boxes of papers we get from each department. We [then] give recyclable papers to the printing office. We put [the useless ones] in the big dumpster at the corner of the track.” However, once the papers are sorted, the Environmental Club’s responsibility ends; it’s then up to the school to make sure the paper makes its way to the recycling centers.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen. “The papers from last year are still there [at the dumpster],” said Tony. Even with the club’s work, there are still areas in need of improvement to accomplish environmental sustainability on our campus.

So the ugly truth is: we as a school are poorly managing paper disposal. In response, students from the Environmental Issues class initiated a project called #Paperless to raise awareness about and encourage recycling papers. During our investigation, we realized that the repercussions of paper disposal are more serious than it seems. When asked about the environmental effects of paper waste, Yuhan answered, “I am aware that large [number] of trees are cut down to produce papers and that a lot of chemicals are used in the process. I think most students know that.”

Indeed, deforestation and heavy use of toxic chemicals are two of the gravest consequences of manufacturing papers; but the effects transcend beyond those two. As an example, paper also has a significant influence on the usage of water. Papermaking is a process that needs a lot of resources, especially water. About five liters of water is required to manufacture one sheet of A4 paper. As a matter of fact, the paper industry is ranked the fourth-largest contributor of toxins to surface water.

Cutting down paper consumption and actively recycling papers are two most effective solutions to curb deforestation, reduce the use of harmful chemicals and water, and produce less paper disposal. Therefore, members of #Paperless project planned to implement a long-term project over the course of the second and third quarters that will include the following: conducting a waste audit, in which we will survey classrooms, school grounds, staff lounge, and the cafeteria to break down how much paper we waste as a school; raising awareness about the environmental issues tied to paper usage through short documentaries and posters; and installing recycling facilities, such as bins just for papers as well as paper shredders for teachers to easily recycle test papers. To achieve our goal, however, we need everyone’s support and contribution. “People don’t really follow the [recycling system]. [Regarding] the bottle cap and recycling bin, I don’t think people really [use] them,” said Tony. As Tony mentioned, if only a few people use the #Paperless’s recycling system, the results won’t be as fruitless as we would want to be.

Most importantly, we want to invite everyone to work toward making changes to our waste habits. For instance, on behalf of the Environmental Club, Tony requested teachers and students to use paper clips to bind the papers together instead of stapling them because papers with stapler marks cannot become recycled. The changes can be small; but together, we can create a snowball effect. As our efforts accumulate, we will be able to substantially minimize our paper consumption and make our campus greener.

Featured Image – A dumpster in front of my house Courtesy of Jessica Choi