The amount of paper used at ASU is shocking. Although there are no exact figures to be drawn up, any student that attends a few classes on campus can observe how much paper is wasted in thick syllabi, unnecessary handouts, and bulky tests.
With technology like Blackboard, power points, e-mail and pdfs, instructors generally don’t have an excuse to waste the amount of paper that they do.
“Paper is wasted on syllabus handouts mainly, as well as in turning in papers that could easily be submitted online,” Christopher James, a business senior and Campus Environment Director of ASU’s Green Team, says.
James gives a tongue-in-cheek example of the paper wasted in one of his sustainability classes.
“The ironic part is that in one of my sustainability classes that has 300 plus students, we were all required to turn in a hard copy of a two-page paper, in addition to the fact that we each have to turn in a sheet for a quiz at every class,” James says.
However, not all students have bad experiences with paper misuse.
“A lot of my professors conserve paper without doing it purposefully, I think,” Becky Rubenstrunk, a wildlife and restoration ecology junior, says.
Some teachers of Rubenstrunk’s that practice some form of paper conservation include Mark Vuletic, a philosophy professor, and Kelly Steele, a plant taxonomy and genetics associate professor. They both teach at ASU’s Polytechnic campus.
Vuletic conserves paper by dividing one sheet of paper into strips for homework assignments. “At least five people received an assignment, but only one sheet of paper was used,” Rubenstrunk says.
By placing power points online for student access, Steele helps to conserve paper. This is a welcome change for Rubenstrunk. “Last semester, I had some professors who’d put their Powerpoints online and print them off for us,” Rubenstrunk says.
“I put other papers online also and don’t print them out. What students also see me do is to collect paper and other things for recycling. They will even see me take soda cans out of the garbage for recycling,” Steele says.
Professors may waste paper to effectively provide all students with materials and easily discuss an assignment with a paper to look at, Rubenstrunk says. Professors may also find the paper version of an assignment to be easier to grade.
However, programs like Microsoft Word allow corrections to be made in boxes on the side of a document, allowing professors to correct papers without wasting paper. Also, if professors use a Powerpoint, overhead or Blackboard, all students can see an assignment without any printing required.
“Outside of lecture delivery, I have moved to having most all dissemination of information, including exams, online whenever appropriate,” Chris Martin, an applied biological sciences professor at the Polytechnic campus, says.
Some other ways to conserve paper are to allow students the option to print out paper themselves, using scratch or recycled paper, printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, printing only necessary assignments and handouts, posting extra handouts online, returning unneeded papers to the teacher or recycling them, Rubenstruck says.
ASU’s Family Weekend Web site lists ways to conserve paper outside of class as well. These include limiting gift wrapping by using gift cards instead, paying bills electronically, using only recycled paper, using fewer paper napkins, and reducing junk mail by registering with the Mail Preference Service. More tips can be found at www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/mu/transitions/Family_Weekend/gogreentips.htm.
Both Rubenstruck and James say they haven’t approached professors about the overuse of paper, but they agree that most professors would probably be receptive and willing to change their paper-wasting ways.
Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu.
