• "Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year--enough to build a 12 foot high wall of paper from New York to California." (Recycler's Handbook)
• "Today, 62 million newspapers will be printed in the U.S., and 44 million will be thrown away. That means the equivalent of about 500,000 trees will be dumped into landfills this week."

As anyone who works in the library or computer lab can attest, we have a lot of potential for re-use and reduction on this campus! Trees may be a renewable resource in theory, but they are not always sustainably harvested. Our demand for wood and paper products is so great, even the last untouched forests in the continental US are being threatened by logging.

Luckily, there are things you can do to help:

You wield a great deal of power as you make your purchasing decisions - have you noticed the sudden explosion of 'Green' marketing? This is a double-edge sword. Its great that companies are responding to increasing environmental awareness; unfortunately, they are also finding ways to try and trick us.

Perhaps the most common is the "100% Recycled" labels, followed in fine print with "10% Post Consumer". This means that only 10% of this product was actually recycled the way we normally think of it. The rest was scrap they picked up from the factory floor. To really help the recycling industry grow, we must buy as much POST CONSUMER as possible.

This is harder to find than recycled content, but its important to show the paper industry that we care. The use of chlorine compounds at paper and pulp mills contributes to the production of Dioxin, which the EPA says causes cancer, reproductive problems, learning disabilities, infertility, and immune disorders. (Center for Health, Environment and Justice)

Please, take some of the re-used, unlined notebook paper we have made for you. Write letters. Take notes on it. Use it for your computer. If you like it, it's simple to make - just grab some out of the university recycling bins!