Product Spotlight
The university purchasing department is currently spotlighting recycled paper. Spotlighting a product is designed to heighten awareness of the amount of recycled materials we are purchasing. Awareness is the first step towards changing our buying habits. This is important as paper accounts for 40% - 50% of the waste stream derived from a municipal campus. Not only does paper have environmental post consumption consequences but also during the production stages as a ton of paper requires 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water and more energy per ton than glass or steel. Overall, buying “post-consumer” recycled content paper instead of virgin pulp paper reduces the energy and resources needed for production as well as the space needed at a landfill to dispose of the waste from production. With that in mind, the following graphs show the dollars spent in 2007 for recycled vs. non-recycled paper for each Indiana University campus.
Buying more recycled paper will give purchasing the ability to negotiation lower pricing because of quantity discounts.
