Ecological Footprint of Paper Use at CC

Paper:

Amount of paper used in lab printers at CC per year: about 192 cases (960,000 sheets) (Cost: about $4560/year)*

Pounds of paper used at CC per year(500 sheets= 24 lbs): 46,080 lbs.

Ecological Footprint of one ton of paper: 17 hectares (about 42 acres)**

Ecological Footprint of one ton of recycled paper: 4.9 hectares (12.1 acres)**

Hectares saved by using 100% recycled paper in labs: 12.1 hectares/ton

Ecological Footprint of overall paper use at CC per year: 391.2 hectares (968.4 acres)

Weight of waste paper collected in one week(10/13/03-10/19/03): 46.8 lbs

Ecological Footprint of wasted paper at CC per year: 14.2 hectares(35.4 acres)***

Toner:

Yield of toner cartridge (Office Depot 82X Remanufactured Toner): Up to 20,000 pages (Cost: $172.43/cartridge)

Pounds of toner used at CC per year: 93.6 lbs.

Ecological Footprint of one hundred pounds of toner (cartridges made from recycled plastic): .4 hectares (.9 acres)**

Number of toners replaced per year(960,000 sheets/ 20,000 sheets per toner): 48 cartridges

Weight of one toner cartridge: 1.95 lbs.

Ecological Footprint of toner at CC per year: .3744 hectares (.925 acres)

The ecological footprint of wasted toner is insignificant and therefore not included in our calculations.

Weights and prices of toner and paper collected from OfficeDepot.com

* Numbers from PrintSmart proposal by Kris Jones

** Ecological Footprint numbers gathered from Ecological Footprint calculatation, by Mathis Wackernagel and Dick Richardson

*** This is a rough estimation calculated through multiplying the waste paper of one week. Unfortunately, we cannot know the actual footprint of one year of waste paper unless we were to collect waste paper for a whole year.