Outline for Student Research and Report on
Opportunities for Reducing Paper Use at School
Goal: To write a report to the school analyzing the school’s existing paper use and its impacts on forests and promoting a new paper reduction, recycling and purchasing policy for the school that will help to protect endangered forests through buying paper with recycled content and reducing and recycling paper used.
Process: Small groups of students will collect data, analyze problems, research issues and solutions, and collaborate to write the final report.
Outline for Report
1. Introduction to paper use and forests: information on how much of our ancient forests have already been cut, what remains, how much of forests goes to making paper, what are the environmental, social, and economic impacts of logging and paper-making, how much paper is used in the U.S..
2. Current paper use at school – how much paper is used, how were these estimates made, how much does this paper cost, what kind of paper is it, where do we buy it from, how much paper is re-used or recycled, is paper often wasted or only 1-side used?
3. Opportunities for Reducing Paper Use at School
3A. Reducing Paper Use – encouraging re-use, double-sided copies, print drafts on used paper, don’t print as many drafts, making signs and posters, etc.
3B. Recycling Paper – Make sure paper is recycled, encourage recycling
3C. Buying Recycled Paper – What are the options for buying different kinds of paper for the school? How much recycled content is in the paper? What would the recycled paper cost? Compare to the existing cost of paper. How many trees, how much energy, how much landfill space, how much pollution would that save? (see homework assignment)
4. The Pros and Cons of Changing Paper Use at School
4A. What are the benefits of reducing, reusing, recycling, and buying recycled paper for the school?
4B. What are the costs of reducing, reusing, recycling, and buying recycled paper for the school?
5. Implementing the Solution
5A. Who will need to do what to make these changes happen?
5B. Students’ recommendations – i.e. Our school should buy paper with recycled content from so&so source, should hang posters encouraging re-use and reduction of paper, etc.
6. Ideas for Future Work – Any ideas students have for additional work that next year’s students could tackle (other paper uses, toilet paper, paper towels? Students’ personal paper use – notebooks, back-to-school guide for buying environmentally-sound supplies? Other schools? Writing government agencies? The town or city where we live? Writing an article for the local paper?)
How this outline breaks down into activities and assignments for 5 groups per class:
Group 1 – Current paper use at school estimates, interviews with school staff, weighing and measuring, how much does it cost, when is paper ordered, what’s the budget for paper purchases, where does the paper come from, how much recycled content currently, one order for both campuses? What kind of paper is it (size, bond weight, opacity, etc.) [We’ll need this information when researching alternative papers] How many trees are used to make this much paper? Who do we order the paper from? Do they offer paper with recycled content? If yes, why don’t we buy that? Has anyone at the school thought of this already? http://www.conservatree.com/learn/Enviro_Issues/TreeStats.shtml (simpler paper calculator to determine how many trees are used or saved to make different types of paper) [Basically, 1 ton of uncoated 100% virgin office paper using the “freesheet” pulping process uses about 24 trees.]
Group 2 – Collect information on statistics about endangered forests, logging, paper use in US, environmental, social and economic impacts of paper and logging – through websites and books, www.thepapercampaign.com, www.forestethics.com, http://www.conservatree.com/learn/Enviro_Issues/Statistics.shtml (lots of info about making paper, impacts of paper, benefits of recycled paper, etc.)
Group 3 – Research options for where to buy office paper with recycled content, how much would it cost for different levels of recycled content, what about “tree free” paper made with no trees and other fibers? – New Leaf Paper, Conservatree, TreeCycle, others. Research on web and/or follow-up with phone interviews. I.e. this is one place that lists distributors of recycled paper: http://www.conservatree.com/paper/Choose/SmallQuanGuide.shtml , www.newleafpaper.com.
Group 4 – Research benefits of using recycled paper. http://www.treecycle.com/info.html (info on benefits of paper recycling [sidebar], definitions of terms, info on sources of recycled paper)
http://www.conservatree.com/learn/Enviro_Issues/TreeStats.shtml (simpler paper calculator to determine how many trees are used or saved to make different types of paper)
http://www.ofee.gov/recycled/calculat.htm (web-based calculator of impacts of paper – energy use, pollution, solid waste, volume of wood used) or http://www.papercalculator.org (new and improved paper calculator).
Group 5 – Research ways of reducing, recycling, and re-using paper at the school, posters to encourage re-use, etc. May check out what other schools have done (see www.ran.org - Rainforest Action Network). Also Center for the New American Dream has a lot of information on paper: www.newdream.org. Do a web search on www.google.com with search words: school paper recycling. One interesting one is:
http://www.metro-waste.com/Recycling/Mixed%20Paper%20Recycling%20at%20School.htm (it’s all one phrase, but too long for 1 line on page)
* All groups do homework assignment (see next page) estimating paper use at school based on weighed data and estimate of how many trees used to make that paper.
* All groups calculate how many trees could be saved by using recycled paper with different amounts of recycled content (see homework assignment next page).
* Some “Tech class time” could be used for small groups to do their research on the web, using the websites listed above as good starting points.
* All groups come back together to compile final report and to brainstorm ideas for parts 5 and 6 of the report (i.e. recommendations and ideas for future work).
* The students deliver their report to the school administration, and perhaps request a meeting with the relevant administrators to discuss the recommendations.
* The students send their report to the paper company that the school currently purchases paper from with a letter summarizing its findings, recommendations, and concerns.
Other ideas of activities
· Make recycled paper out of paper – could be fun to do in art or science, easy to do, kits available.
· Have a company like New Leaf Paper or Give Something Back or Green Earth Office Supplies come in and talk about alternative papers, benefits, costs, etc.
· Fieldtrip to Redwood Park in Oakland, or Tilden Park to learn about ancient redwood trees
· Write a “personal history” of a tree or a forest that is important to the person (a tree-house, a park, a good climbing tree, a tree on a hike, …)
Homework Assignment #1
Paper Project
NAME:
DATE:
1. Estimate how much paper is used at your school in one school year, using the data collected in your class.
Weight of paper in bins for one week:
For one month?
For the school year?
2. How does this compare to the amount of paper purchased by the school in one year? Students will need to interview office staff about the paper purchases for the school.
4. Using the 2 answers (from #1 and #2 above) and the information on the attached sheet about how many trees are required to make one ton of paper, calculate how many trees are used to make the paper that is used at your school in one school year. Remember to show your work to explain how you arrived at your answer.
5. Using the attached information, can you predict how many trees could be saved if your school used paper with different amounts of recycled content (i.e. 30%, 50%, 100%)?
Attachment for homework assignment
SOME TYPICAL CALCULATIONS
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!)
§ 1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)
§ 1 ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper (used for newsmagazines and most catalogs) uses nearly 8 trees (7.68)
How do you calculate how many trees are saved by using recycled paper?
(1) Multiply the number of trees needed to make a ton of the kind of paper you're talking about (groundwood or freesheet), then
(2) multiply by the percent recycled content in the paper.
For example,
1 ton (40 cartons) of 30% postconsumer content copier paper saves 7.2 trees
1 ton of 50% postconsumer content copier paper saves 12 trees.
Information from Conservatree
100 Second Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 721-4230
Fax: (509) 756-6987
Copyright 1988-2003 Conservatree
For a more comprehensive Paper Calculator that can give you information on savings of trees, water pollution, air pollution, energy and more, please visit:
http://www.papercalculator.org
Developed by the Green Schools Initiative ∙ www.greenschools.net