WHERE DOES OUR PAPER COME FROM?
Paper and paper products, as you probably know, come from trees. Forests are home to over half of the world’s terrestrial species. Over-exploitation of forests has wiped out more than half of the world’s forest cover. Each tree can filter up to 60 lbs of pollutants from the air in its lifetime.
To make a ton of paper, it takes 1600 lbs of wood pulp, 400 lbs of inorganic fillers (like clay), 25 lbs of dyes, 30 lbs of miscellaneous organic chemicals, 80 lbs of starch coating, and 8,000 gallons of water.
The Mountain and Our Paper
Each year 10,000+ sheets of white paper are used per student. Considering there are 1424 students currently enrolled, roughly 14,240,000 sheets of paper are used, if not more.
Decreasing Your Paper Wastes
Both in Sewanee and out of the bubble, make sure to:
- Use both sides of the paper when writing, and print double sided
- Store your scrap paper and use it whenever possible
- Use the print preview button to decide what pages you really want to print
- Read articles from the computer
- Use e-mail to minimize paper use, unless you are writing a personal note or letter
- Change the layout options to decrease fonts and margin sizes to minimize paper when you print
- Print on the unused side of paper (the bins in the library are full of such sheets of paper)
- Buy as much recycled paper as possible and keep an eye out for the percentage of recycled material used in the packaging of products you buy
- Edit papers on the computer screen, not on paper
- Use cloth towels and sponges instead of paper towels
- Recycle your paper – there are conveniently placed recycling bins in all of the dorms.
