Six Inches -- J. Garretson

Homework Causes Pollution

Karen Brophy, an Education student at Missouri State, says the environment is very important to her. But, like many students, she says she’s never considered how much she may harm the environment with one integral aspect of school life – homework.

“I use paper every day for class,” she says. “I had to print a twenty-page report for class just last week.”

Schoolwork generates tons of waste paper, often without a second thought from students and faculty. The perception, says Chilton McLaughlin, an environmental engineer with the US Environmental Protection Agency, is that paper is harmless to the environment because it’s biodegradable.

“Untreated paper isn’t white – it’s pressed wood pulp, brown and not very pretty,” says McLaughlin. “To get it white, they treat it with chlorine … They bleach it.”
Heavily treated paper – the thick, glossy kind most textbooks are printed on – is among the worst for the environment. And, according to the National Wildlife Foundation, textbooks consume 200,000 tons of paper annually. As old editions are discarded, says McLaughlin, there’s sure to be an impact on the environment.

Paper is essential to education, but there are still many things students and teachers can do to help protect the environment. Paper can be recycled over a dozen times, for example, so used paper need not be wasted paper.

Teachers can also chip in by assigning less homework, says McLaughlin. “Keep in mind that making new paper takes 50% more energy than recycling it.”
As for Karen Brophy, she says she’ll never think of homework the same.

“I had no idea,” she says. “It’s kind of scary.

According to the EPA website, only 42% of paper products were recycled in 2005. 34% of landfill waste was paper.