Recycle

For anyone who has seen Bill Nye the Science Guy, the music videos at the end of each show will be vividly remembered. One of my favorites was RECYCLE a spin off of Aretha Franklin's RESPECT. Recycling is not only a concept discussed on children's t.v. shows; it is also an issue that should concern many of us as we live in a world where the average person accumulates about 4.5 pounds of garbage per day! How much of that could be reduced, reused, or recycled? This past week in my learning project, I set out to see how much paper I used and how I could reduce that amount. I also made an endeavor to recycle more of the paper that I used. I discovered that in an average week I print off about 30 pages for papers and reading materials. So if there are 2500 students at Luther printing off 30 pages a week that comes out to 75,000 sheets of paper printed off per week! And that would be in a week where no major papers are due and one does not have to print off multiple drafts for editing and in class workshops. This amount overwhelmed me, so I started thinking of ways that I could reduce my paper amount myself and ways that campus as a whole could do this.
Some of this printing, I found, could be reduced if professors would be more specific as to what needs to be handed in and what only needs to be read and reflected on. To type up a whole assignment and then find out you don't have to hand it in is not only frustrating but also wastes paper. Another way that I could reduce paper would be to print off only what I need to hand in. Much editing can be done on the computer and if you don't need a hard copy in class, you can email the paper to a friend to edit and send back to you. Also, not printing off online reading would reduce paper use a little bit. Printing doubled sided would also cut the amount of paper used by half. One problem with this is that Luther only has one double sided printer on campus. I think that it would be a good investment for Luther to replace all the printers on campus with ones that have double sided capabilities. This may cost a bit more in the beginning, but the amount of paper it would reduce would probably end up making up that cost difference. Reducing the amount of handouts that professors give to students would also reduce the amount of paper that we use. With the Katie cite, professors are able to post assignments and extras online. Many professors do not take advantage of this and end up overloading students with papers that they never look at. I think that the Ed. department switching from paper portfolios to electronic ones will also help me to personally reduce the amount of paper that I use. With the electronic system, LINCS sheets will no longer have to be printed - two copies for each one - and neither will the whole portfolio.
Looking ahead to when I have my own classroom, I can see this learning experience help to manage paper waste and over use. Limiting the amount of pages students can print, reducing the amount of handouts that I give, and, if possible, posting things online would all be very possible in an elementary or middle school classroom. With middle schoolers, this learning experience would also be a good thing to have them try for themselves to see if they could find other ways to reduce paper use in their own lives.