Paper Reduction Project

LBMS Student Leadership Presents

One of the first projects of the LBMS Student Leaders was to lead a project on reducing the amount of paper being used in the school. Members participated in the project by making observations, brainstorming solutions, collaborating information by way of an online web page (wiki), writing reports, creating web pages, and presenting results by way of this website.

The group will go one step further by sharing their findings to all the principals of the Westlake City School district in hope that a district plan can be adopted and pursued.

Getting a Paper Reduction Campaign Started

It would seem that the invention of the computer didn't reduce the amount of paper used within a business, but quite the contrary - the use of paper increased. These major steps might be what would be expected in any campaign to reduce paper usage:

Getting started
Dedicating adequate support
Auditing paper consumption
Identifying and prioritizing ways to reduce paper consumption
Encouraging involvement
Tracking improvements
Sustaining efforts over time.

Business Guide to Paper Reduction

Planning.... to Gather Data

So just how do we use paper in our schools? Who uses the most? What's missing is a plan or process to audit how staff at a particular school use paper. Once a system is in place, the a project manager could try to come up with alternative solutions.

Some data to collect might include:

Teacher or subject or grade level
What is being copied, i.e. test, handouts, notes home, etc
How much is copied using individual printers (hooked up to computers) and copy machines as opposed to using central printing.

Un-needed handouts are made

Most of the time, when presentations are given, students are asked to make handouts for the class. Usually the handouts are used so the students can follow the presentations. After the presentations are done the students usually throw the paper away because the have no use anymore.

There are about 25 kids in a class.
Which is 625 handouts per class.

That’s 2500 handouts per team because of the 4 classes a day.

Solutions

There are many solutions that can fix this problem.

Students can give presentations without the handouts.
Students can may overhead transparencies so the whole class can look at one handout.
Students can also make a power point that can go along with their presentation.

To learn more about paper you can visit:

http://www.tappi.org/paperu/welcome.htm

Many students here at LBMS throw away old papers while cleaning their lockers. This is a problem because the student could have recycled it. One solution might be to put recycling bins in the hallway. They could be right next to the trash cans. This could make sure that whenever a student is about to throw a piece of paper away, they will see the recycling bin, and put it in there. There should probably be a bin for only paper. Luckily, by putting those in, it will decrease the amount of paper being wasted.

Re-use bins could also be put right next to printers so that one-side paper could be re-used again.

Post Online Grades

One way to reduce paper waste in our school is for all of the teachers to post their grades online. This would save paper because after students read their reports most of them just trow them away. IF all grades were posted online, then it would save a lot of paper from being thrown away. If we could get all the teachers to post grades online, parents and students could check their grades whenever they wanted. Having online grades would be more convenient because student wouldn't have to take home progress reports and report cards home and be in danger of losing them. This way parents would always be informed of their child's academic level. IT would be easy to teach all of the teachers how to transfer their grades online and most teachers already have their online anyway.

Too Much Paper

Teachers use a lot of paper for tests and worksheets and then sometimes the worksheets don’t get used. The teachers print extra copies in case lose them which uses a lot more paper than necessary. To prevent this teachers could print only enough for one per student and then put a copy of it on their webpage, If the student loses their worksheet they can print one off at home. Putting report cards online is another way to reduce paper. The teachers could get all of the emails of the parents and send them the report cards by email. Some kids might not have emails available so for those people you can just put their report cards on paper.

Passes, Passes, Passes!

In many schools passes are written for students when they need to use the bathroom or they are going to be late to class. Many of this small paper passes are throw out immediately after they are used. I’m sure sheets of paper are thrown away each day by just this alone. Why waste all this paper when there are many alternatives. For instance in our school pass logs are located in the back of our planners. All we do is fill out a section, have a teacher sign it and we are allowed to go to our locker or bathroom. It’s only one sheet so it uses much less paper. Another alternative is having laminated passes or little stuffed animals that act as a pass. This way when a student needs to see a teacher, they take the pass and their free to go to the desired room. It can be used thousands of times, and takes little or no paper. Also, the pass log idea can be taken a step further. When ever a student is late, they fill out one section and have the teacher sign it and then that would be the student’s pass to the next class. We actually don’t have to change anything. We could keep writing out pass after pass but instead of throwing all the paper away, we could recycle it. This would mean recycle bins (or recycle boxes) in every class room or a large recycling bin in the main hallway. It is quite simple really, all it takes is all little cooperation and work, and we can save paper.

See this site for ways to start a recycling program

http://www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services/recycling/schools.shtml