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NCC Paves the Green Way with 100% Recycled Paper

http://www.northampton.edu/news/topstories/recycledpaper.htm

By Cynthia Tintorri     January 14, 2008

Northampton Community College will soon become the first college or university in the Lehigh Valley or Monroe County to use 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper for most of its printing and copying.

“Specifically, we’re going to use the 100% recycled paper to replace our white, 20-pound bond paper,” says Jim Johnson, director of Duplicating & Mail Services for NCC. And that’s nothing to sneeze at: in serving more than 32,000 credit and non-credit students a year, the College uses about 2,624 cartons of white paper a year, or over 13 million sheets, in all its copiers and in the print shop. The new paper, Envirographic 100, is made by BPM Inc., a long-time manufacturer of 100% PCW products.

To understand the significance of a truly 100% PCW paper, it’s important to know what goes into it – or rather, what doesn’t. It’s not made from virgin wood pulp, or the paper manufacturer’s paper scraps or ends. True 100% PCW paper has actually been to the consumer and back – all of it. The paper that you write on, print on, and copy on in your home, office or school is purchased from recyclers (you do recycle, right?) by BPM Inc. This recycled paper (post-consumer waste paper, that is) is de-inked and made into pulp, which is then made into paper. Envirographic 100 paper is not just 100% PCW – it’s also 100% Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) and acid-free as well.

What all this means is that Envirographic 100 leaves a smaller environmental footprint from start to finish. Its manufacture causes 74 percent less air pollution, 35 percent less water pollution, and creates five times the number of jobs than does producing paper from trees. The process also saves old-growth trees, forest ecosystems, native habitat, and bio-diversity. Unfortunately, only a scant five percent of America’s national paper consumption is currently made from recycled pulp, according to Conservatree, a non-profit paper advisory organization. So what’s the downside? Well, 100% PCW recycled paper does cost a bit more than regular bond. Johnson says NCC will make purchasing the “green” paper cost-effective by ordering and storing large quantities of it. Not a bad trade-off for saving trees and the environment.

This initiative is just another of the many ways NCC strives to stay on the green path. The College has an active recycling program that has grown every year since its inception in 2001, and now includes not only paper, plastics and aluminum, but also fluorescent light bulbs, chemicals, batteries, videotapes and electronic scrap like old computers and related hardware. Cleansers used by custodial staff on campus are derived from natural substances and are environmentally safe. Cafeterias sell organic, fair-trade coffee in biodegradable corn-based cups, and use china plates and metal utensils as a reusable alternative to paper and plastics. And NCC’s Environmental Task Force, made up of students, faculty and staff, is always seeking ways the College can improve its environment-friendly practices and raise awareness about environmental issues.

Being green is a commitment NCC takes very seriously. According to NCC President Dr. Arthur Scott, “Saving our environment is not a responsibility we can walk away from. Each of us has a stake in leaving this planet in better shape for the generations that follow ours.”

Cafeteria Cups

Feeling guilty about using Styrofoam cups every day?? You should.

Syrofoam contains benzene, styrene, ethylene, and chlorofluorocarbons, all of which are devastating to the environment. For example, benzene is a flammable, MUTAGEN and CARCINOGEN. Even short-term exposures to benzene cause dizziness, lightheadedness, headaches, vomiting, convulsions, coma, and death Long-term effects include skin scaling, leukemia, plastic anemia, and death.

AND, it takes over 500 years for one Styrofoam cup to degrade. In the meantime, it’s pieces break off and are carried all over the globe, leaving a toxic trail in its wake.

PLUS, styrofoam waste takes up as much as 30% of our nation’s land fill space, with over 25 million styrofoam cups being thrown away every year.

The Good News is…. The ETF and NCC’s Progressive Student Alliance are working for you.

In meetings with the food service company, compostable cold cups distributed by “Fabrical” were approved to replace the Styrofoam cups in the cafeteria. They might cost a little more (to be covered by a ~5 cent increase in the cost of cold drinks), but you should be able to sleep at night.

Further “green`n up” in the cafeteria continues to be a topic at ETF meetings. Come make your voice be heard!

Organic Food in the Cafeteria

Pesticides kill! That’s their job…to kill anything and everything that touches the food on which they’ve been sprayed. For example, organophosphate pesticides affect the nervous system by disrupting the enzyme that regulates nerve firing and were used during WWII as nerve gasses.

Pesticides are used far too commonly, and we all consume them every day. For apples alone, US farmers used over 26,000,000 lbs of pesticides on 5,000,000 acres of orchard-land last year.

The good news is….

Student activists with the ETF have been working with NCC’s food service company to get organic foods in the cafeteria.

Already, there have been great strides…. The cafeteria has replaced its typical “handfruits” with organic fruits. So eat your apple, or your banana, or your orange, knowing that fruit is healthy for you, especially when it’s organic.

Double-Sided Printing in the Library

To reduce the paper waste generated by single-sided printing, the NCC library printers in Bethlehem and Monroe have been set to print double sided, 10 pages at a time.