Why Schools should Cut Down On Paper Usage

By: Andrew Cody

Imagine that you are a bird minding your own business in a large, vibrant oak tree. It is the most perfect and unique tree. It has it all-  a wide, rough trunk, and soft, bushy leaves. This is the perfect tree for you. All of a sudden you hear an ax hitting the sturdy wood. There are workers with hard hats on the ground slowly hacking their way through the tree’s base. The tree starts to fall. You jump up and fly away. Now your home is gone. You need to find another, but you are concerned, knowing that you're not the only innocent animal suffering from this event and this will not be the last time this happens. Every day about 42,000,000 trees are cut down in the world. Of that large amount, a significant percentage of that lumber is used to make paper. Schools should make it a priority to reduce their usage of paper goods because it will cut down on costs, save space, and most importantly, it will help our environment.  

Schools around the world can save up to about $80 total per teacher and student by simply going paperless or reducing paper usage. Imagine how much money that schools could save by switching to electronics or using other non paper products. One important benefit of going paperless is how schools can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars by simply reducing paper products. According to Inc.com “According to the EPA, a paperless office saves roughly $80 per employee (annually) in costs related to paper, ink, toner, storage space, and postage.” Because paper can only be used once, it runs out quickly especially if you have a school with lots of teachers and students printing and drawing on massive amounts of paper. This is why using technology or other non paper products can cut down on costs due to a laptop or computer lasting longer, costing less, being more long term than the average amount of paper you need to buy to support the whole school and having more features such as games, applications and testing programs. 

Schools can save lots of space by simply reducing their usage of paper. Another important benefit of going paperless is saving space in the school and making more room for other school necessities. A quote from Indeed.com says “Once the company becomes a paperless office, they could remove the cabinets and copier to use the space for another purpose, such as a break or meeting room.” Schools use entire rooms to store paper and printers along with ink and other printing materials. Schools can easily save this space to use for other things such as break rooms, classrooms, storage, maintenance etc by simply using laptops and tablets to store all of the schools archives and take tests as opposed to paper. 

Finally going paperless can help the environment significantly. The final benefit of schools going paperless is that it can help the environment. Paper comes from trees, because of this, the paper industry significantly increases deforestation causing over a billion trees to be cut down yearly. According to YourStory.com “Wood pulp obtained from trees has been a primary source of paper for centuries, thus increasing deforestation which, in turn, has a detrimental effect on the climate and the environment.” This can be simply avoided by reducing paper in schools. Swarthmore College uses 667 pages of paper daily thus greatly increasing the amount of trees chopped down. If a school does not have access to laptops, tablets or computers, although it will bring back the cost and the space problems, schools can use paper alternatives such as bamboo paper, kenaf paper   or limestone paper which do not require trees to make or schools can start to use 100% recycled paper so we can reuse paper. 

Now imagine you are that same bird in that same tree before it was chopped down. You are taking in the fresh spring air. You are able to sit there for a long time and the tree was not cut down. If people and schools start to reduce paper, it will be our bird in every story-an animal with a home. Schools and people around the world can do this and they could be the ones to save an animal's home, they could be the ones with extra space in the schools or houses, they could be the ones that save money and time. So, it is up to schools to use less paper to improve lives. 

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   Why Schools should Cut Down On Paper Usage. (2024, March 13). APEC Learning. Retrieved (Month Date, Year), from     https://www.apeclearning.org/articles/why-schools-should-cut-down-on-paper-usage