Saving paper seems like an undemanding task in the modern world. With all of the technological advances being made to ease, improve, and entertain our day-to-day lives, paper has become gradually unnecessary. Books can be stored in the thousands on Kindles, computers can hold years of archives and writing, and mail can be sent in an instant. So, creating an anti-waste environment should be easily attainable This is a guide for teachers to keep their classrooms a little more green!

Tip #1: Use class sets.

It’s simple math! Five periods of thirty students, given two pages each of a story or worksheet, amounts to 300 sheets of paper. To put this in an environmental context, one sheet of paper takes a compiled 3 gallons of water to make. This results in 900 gallons of water used, which is the equivalent of leaving your bathroom faucet on for 15 hours! Lincoln teachers know better than that. Environmental science teacher, Katherine Handschuh, said in her classroom, notebooks are a necessity. She elaborated and said “…sometimes, I’ll pass out a class set of a lab or activity, and then they answer and transcribe everything into their notebooks… I make lots of class sets as opposed to handing students’ one copy for everything.” Class sets can be reused for years even, saving thousands of sheets of paper and gallons of water in the process. 

Tip #2: Take advantage of natural lighting. 

We have beautiful weather in California. 257 of the 365 days of the year are sunny. What is the purpose of shut blinds and fluorescent lighting when we have natural lighting provided for us at every hour of the school day? “We can do simple things like keeping the classroom lights off when you don’t need them and using natural lighting..” said Mrs. Handschuh. Natural lighting is a great way to offset the amount of energy Lincoln uses in an 8 hour school day. 

Tip #3: Utilize Google Classroom.

It’s one of the most beneficial technologies to ever touch public schools. Teachers can send students home with pages upon pages of assignments and text…without printing a single sheet of paper. “ I think in some ways, technology helps us become a little more green…Students can type directly onto assignments and submit them via Google Classroom. Let’s say you assign something and you don’t want to make an individual copy for everybody, but they need to take it home with them, then you can just post it onto Google Classroom–like an article–and students can access it later without having to make a copy for every student.” says Mrs. Handschuh.

With the global climate on the rise and paper waste off the charts, it’s important to implement sustainable habits in every aspect of our lives. Saving paper and electricity is the first and most important step in the direction of saving our Earth!