ASUSU resolution about recycled paper on campus spurs conflicting opinions
What originally was meant as a recommendation for Utah State University to begin using post-consumer recycled paper now appears to be a post-recycled promise to some students.
The Associated Students of USU passed a resolution Jan. 7 recommending the use of 100- percent post-consumer recycled paper in university computer labs and copy machines.
Vanessa Welsh, proxy president for the USU chapter of the Environmental Coalition of Students, said, “The committee passed a resolution for 100 percent, knowing all of the pros and cons. Then, a couple of weeks later they changed their minds based on some very weak evidence.”
When the Computer Fee Appropriations Committee reviewed the resolution, however, they changed ASUSU’s recommendation and opted to use 30- percent post-consumer paper in the open-access computer labs, said Gary Egbert, USU student lab services supervisor.
“The 30-percent post is a lot better paper,” he said. “We are mandated to start purchasing recycled paper as of July 1.”
Egbert said the university is obligated to use all of the non-recycled paper it has on hand, but will begin using recycled paper when the current supply runs out.
The type of recycled paper the committee opted to use will present far fewer problems for the printing equipment, Egbert said.
“It’s [100 percent paper] kind of like a Kleenex. If you take a Kleenex out and shake it, you’re going to see fine particles come out of it,” Egbert said. “It’s going to get inside the printers and cause paper jams.”
Jim Steitz, president of ECOS, said Egbert’s statement that 100-percent post paper causes extra maintenance for printers is a myth.
“Other universities use recycled paper in great volume. That problem does not exist,” Steitz said. “This should be an absolute no-brainer.”
The College of Natural Resources uses 100-percent post-consumer paper and has not faced any problems, he said.
He added that computer lab managers are basing their decisions on experiences with recycled paper from many years ago, when the quality of the product was lower, and the technology was young.
ASUSU Academic vice president and chairperson of the Computer Fee committee, Ericka Ensign, said she contests Steitz’ claims about the paper.
“I understand that their [Natural Resources] printers are probably doing OK, but they don’t print half the volume that our open-access computer labs are printing,” Ensign said.
Because open-access computer labs are funded entirely from student fees, Ensign said, the increased cost of maintenance, which would be required for printers that use 100-percent post-consumer paper, was taken into account when her committee made the decision.
“Any additional costs from those labs, the students would be paying for,” Ensign said. “They [printers] will wear out a lot faster, they will need to be cleaned a lot more in comparison to what is going on right now.”
Ensign said she agrees with Egbert that the 100-percent recycled paper is a lot dustier due to the fibers being smaller.
“That’s just the way it is,” Ensign said. “I wish, for the sake of people like Jim Steitz, that it wasn’t that way, but I’m sorry, it is.”
When ECOS presented its case to ASUSU for recycled paper, it did not offer any alternatives to 100-percent post-consumer paper, Ensign said.
“It hadn’t even occurred to me that I had another option,” she said.
With the recommendation for 100-percent post-consumer paper, ASUSU did not understand what they were voting on, Egbert said.
“They didn’t understand the difference between the 30 and 100 post,” Egbert said.
Ensign said the decision to use 30-percent post-consumer paper in the open-access computer labs on campus will stand. Steitz said he is still going to try to convert the university to using only recycled paper.
“We will be discussing these issues with the administration after the resolution is formally reported to President Hall,” Steitz said. “If this administration is serious about becoming an environmental university, we believe they will establish that policy, as well as make sure the computer lab policy does not stand.”
–str@cc.usu.edu