Paper management at the ANU

Default double-sided printing is a great idea, particularly for people in a hurry who just aren’t thinking about their paper consumption (and those who aren’t particularly concerned about it anyway), but the issue with recycling paper is that the more you recycle it, the smaller the fibres in the materials become and eventually they can’t be recycled anymore, so even though some people might think they’re being environmental by printing out their class readings on recycled paper, the truth is that it’s not actually reducing their consumption enough. If they were to read it from the computer, or perhaps just print one copy between a few in a group and take turns reading it before discussing it, the positive difference in paper consumption would be huge. ANU Green and the campus librarians educate our students in proper paper consumption to minimise waste – little things like using scrap paper to print non-assessable items, and reducing page size on the photocopier (so you can fit three or four pages onto one A4 page). Another option which I thought was interesting is that I passed by a petstore on the weekend, and in the window they had a sign saying ‘Any shredded paper desperately needed for our animals’ – something I thought was really nifty. So once the paper has been used on both sides, another option for already-recycled paper is to shred it in a paper-shredder and pass it on to be used as pet shavings. The ANU Green website has a number of ways to help with paper usage on their website, including the brands of paper reams which are environmentally friendly, and those to add to your black-list til they pick up their game.