Our school is in the process of starting a recycling program. I’m sure there are many schools out there that have been recycling for several years, but living in a rural area presents some unique challenges when it comes to recycling. Many of the trash haulers still do not provide a means to recycle. People in our area who wish to recycle have to haul their own recyclables to a central location where there is a roll off container. Many companies will not even supply a container or wish to be involved in recycling because it ends up costing them money due to the distance they have to travel. It is actually costing our school district more to change haulers so that we can start a recycling program!!! But, in the long run, our students will be better off by becoming educated about the process, by becoming part of doing something to help our planet, and by reducing their carbon footprint.
Not only is recycling a great idea, but what about reducing the amount of printing done at the school so that less paper is used? If you want some motivation to reduce, get a hold of your school district’s paper budget. Sit down first though before you look at it. And, if you want to create a visual for others to see the need to cut back on paper use, borrow the gym and create a pile of boxes big enough to hold the number of reams of paper your school uses in a year. If you want another shock, figure out how many trees it would take to make that amount of paper. Not a pretty site.
So, I’ve come up with a number of ways to use less paper and to save money on printing.
1. Have students do assignments in the computer lab and save them to a folder on a drive so that you can down load them to a flash drive. It is a lot easier to carry a flash drive home in your pocket than a bag full of papers.
2. Use one of the free test makers on the internet rather than printing your tests out. http://www.teach-nology.com/downloads/test/
3. Make worksheets on the computer and save them to a drive that is accessable to your students. If you go to Tools in the tool bar, and then come down to Protect Document in the drop down menu, you can lock your document so the questions can’t be changed. You can also provide fields for the students to type their answers.
4. Only print one copy on your computer printer. Use a potocopier to make multiple copies. Copier costs are much less than printer costs.
5. Some printers are capable of printing duplex. Suggest to your purchasing department that they buy printers of this type.
6. Print to a laser printer instead of an inkjet printer.
7. Make sure students are not printing things they shouldn’t be printing.
8. To save toner, change your printer default to draft mode.
9. Always do a Print Preview before printing to verify that you are only printing pages that you need.
10. For color printers, only print color if needed.
Each one of the above suggestions by itself is no great savings, but if we all follow them, and make them a habit, together we can make a difference. Live lightly!!!
