Limiting Paper Waste Stream Through Penn State Sustainability
On February 26, 2024, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on dire environmental issues that may lead to a planetary crisis, including climate change, nature loss, and pollution. The Assembly specifically emphasized the declining biodiversity, chemical and waste pollution, as well as land degradation, highlighting the importance of multilateral collaboration.¹ Here on campus, driven by the concerns of our planet, Penn State has followed its leading vision to become a sustainable college campus in the U.S. Penn State Sustainability was born to progress upon policy initiatives and education that would assist in reducing negative impacts on Earth. Its 2021-2025 Strategic Plan is approaching its deadline, and while it sets to focus on sustainability aligning with the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, there is space for future improvements in guaranteeing a more environmentally friendly campus.²
Over the years, Penn State Sustainability has paid a huge amount of attention to reducing waste on campus, including but not limited to energy, food, and water waste. These programs, such as Penn State’s Living Filter, have achieved prominent success in reducing our ecological footprints on Earth as a large population body. However, there is one type of waste that has been overlooked and is closely connected to our dire environmental concerns on the UNEA this year, paper waste. Although going paperless seems to be the unavoidable trend for colleges after the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, Penn State’s paper waste is still the third largest single-sourced waste on campus, following wood and construction waste. With classes shifting back to in-person mode, on-campus paper waste did not permanently improve after the pandemic but instead started to restore its pre-pandemic level.³
Paper waste is often overlooked due to its successful recycling industry. However, it desires more attention due to its problematic features and the recycling process that heavily impacts our environment. Considering the current trend of land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and increasing chemical pollution, even the hopeful paper recycling process could harm our land, making relying solely on our paper recycling program insufficient to be truly environmentally friendly. In fact, this is a problem on campus recognized by other schools, such as Yale, a major advocate for paper reduction. Thus, Penn State, in addition to its existing programs, should also consider reducing paper waste and going paperless in certain situations, guaranteeing a more sustainable campus life.
Sources:
- “Press Release – UN Environment Assembly Opens with Calls for Stronger Multilateral Action – United Nations Sustainable Development.” United Nations. Accessed March 25, 2024. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2024/02/UNEA-6-Opens-with-Calls-for-Stronger-Multilateral-Action/.
- “Strategic Plan.” Penn State Sustainability, February 26, 2021. https://sustainability.psu.edu/about-us/about-penn-state-sustainability/strategic-plan/.
- “Waste Dashboard.” Penn State Sustainability, February 20, 2023. https://sustainability.psu.edu/campus-efforts/by-the-numbers/view-our-progress/waste-dashboard/.
1). Comment on the title. How does it offer a way forward on the issue? Does it hint at or echo the paper’s thesis? Make suggestions.
– I like the title. It makes it easy to tell that you are talking about paper, as well as overall Penn State sustainability. I have no suggestions for any other titles.
2). Does this piece’s title and introduction respond to an exigence?-Does it make the issue pressing or connect to other pressing needs and issues? Make suggestions.
– This intro does set up the issue well and makes it pressing. I liked the use of stats to display the dire situation the earth is in. I also liked how you brought up recent UN meetings as they were prevalent at the time and a great source of info. Additionally, I like the way you set up a timeline of the issue from pre-covid to covid and now post-covid. It shows how this problem is fixable in theory (paperless during covid) and that it is now increasing back to pre-covid levels. Overall the issue is introduced very well and is easy to follow.
3). Comment on the thesis. Does it set up a clear argumentative claim? Is it advancing a specific policy or practice? Can you imagine how the rest of the argument will unfold?
-I like the thesis statement. It sets up the argument that Penn State should reduce paper. It does not mention any specific method/policy but mentions going paperless for future sustainability. I could see this brief going into ways Penn State could become paperless such as where to cut paper, what the alternative would be, etc. Overall, I like your thesis. It doesn’t seem to have a plain-as-day claim/method to reduce paper, but I still think it is a nice ending to the intro.
4). From the thesis and introduction, identify the organizational pattern from the chart in the “Arranging Policy Arguments” Keyword? Also, identify the types of policy instruments that are suggested in the thesis (mandates, inducements, capacity builders, or system change). If you can’t do that, let the reader know.
– I can not find the specific patterns so I’ll just say what I think about it. Like I said earlier I like how you introduce the current issues revolving around sustainability around the world as a whole. It is a nice transition when you narrow in not only on Penn State but paper waste. It is kind of like here is this huge issue, but here’s how we can help do our part. I like this approach. I think it would be nice if you introduced specific paper-eliminating tactics, but understand if that is to come later. This seems like a mandate, which makes sense. A paper ban would probably have to be enforced or something along those lines. Overall the structure looks good. It seems like an effect then the cause and how to eliminate the cause. I like this better than an effect-focused approach. Overall this intro is very well done, and I like this topic, as it applies to all students.