In this project, we are going to analyze paper waste at Colorado College. Two of our main strategies will be a paper count to see how much paper is used daily in several large labs, and a count of unclaimed paper left in printers in all of the large labs on campus. We will also check the toner and paper's ecological footprint to see how much we can save by being more resourceful. We will compose a survey to see what people think about this subject and how wasteful we are. We will also take pictures of the wasted paper and make signs regarding paper waste and information about printing smart, and put them up around campus to show people the truth about paper waste at CC. We will also make a website to inform others of our findings.
Monday: Propose questions for survey. Begin paper count in Barnes PC lab and Loomis ground floor lab. Collect unclaimed paper in all major public labs, including Barnes labs, Palmer labs, and labs in other major campus buildings. Contact David Ziemba, Lab and Server System Coordinator.
Tuesday- Continue with paper count and unclaimed paper collection in the same labs. Begin collecting information on the ecological footprint of paper, toner, and energy used in the labs on campus. We will talk to David Ziemba to gain information on this, including the energy used by the printers. We will begin making signs which we will hang in the labs regarding print previews and information on which printer the computers will print to.
Wednesday- Continue with paper count and unclaimed paper collection in same labs. Continue calculating ecological footprint. Hopefully, we can begin to collect completed surveys sometime midweek.
Thursday- Continue with paper count and unclaimed paper collection. Collect more surveys and begin to analyze surveys. Begin working on print smart website, which will include all of our findings and research.
Friday- Finish paper count and unclaimed paper collection. Continue making website. Count unclaimed paper and take picture to include in website. Begin writing paper.
Sat-Tue- Finalize website and finish paper. Make signs regarding unclaimed paper and paper usage in labs, and post them in all major labs on campus. Calculate the amount of money wasted on paper in one week in one of the major labs, such as the Barnes PC lab. Include this information in our website. Prepare presentation.
We will need to see exactly how much waste is produced in the labs and then get the footprint of a single page. We will also see the difference in different toners and the possibility of using recycled paper. There is also a footprint due to wasted energy from printers. We will not know the exact footprint of the entire campus because we do not know the exact paper use. We can only provide an estimation from an average of the printers that we collect paper from. We also can't know how much paper is used by personal printers on campus. We will include questions regarding personal printers and paper use in our survey.
We will assess the project by first collecting waste paper. We will then make signs regarding our findings and put them around campus and in the computer labs. Afterwards, we will see the difference before and after the signs are posted. We will then see how much the ecological footprint is reduced. Hopefully, people will not ignore our signs and we can help to reduce paper usage on campus.
The outreach components will include several main strategies. Our website will include all of our findings, including the amount of unclaimed paper we collect in the labs in one week, the amount of energy and toner wasted on the wasted paper, the results of our survey, pictures of wasted paper, and an assessment of the ecological footprint provided by one week of wasted paper. We will also make signs that will include our findings and post them in labs and around campus. Hopefully, our survey will also help to make people think about this issue. Our presentation at the end of the block will publicize our findings. These components will cost us little to nothing and will hopefully be beneficial to our cause.
Our final financial impact on the campus will not be huge, but hopefully it will be noticeable. If all goes according to plan, paper usage will drop, saving the school money on paper, toner, and energy. We will post approximate savings after completing our research on our website. Unfortunately, we can't force people to stop wasting paper, but we can show how much will be saved if we reduce all paper use. If we decide to monitor this project throughout the year then we can show how paper usage reduces over the next several months.
Our project will hopefully not only lead to a reduction in paper usage, but will lead to a moral change among students. This could possibly lead to reductions in other sorts of waste on campus. Although our main focus in this project is paper waste, we will also publicize findings regarding energy waste in labs due to excessive printing. Hopefully, this will also make people realize that there is more waste than just the paper. This is true of other sorts of waste as well. Hopefully, people will begin to think about all of the associated wastes of the things that we waste on a daily basis, such as water and electricity. We hope that our portion of this project will help to make people more aware of how we can change things for the better at CC.