1Hi, Nicole.
2As you know, we've got to decide on the best ways this university can reduce its waste.
3You inspected the eastern campus, and I did the western buildings.
4Did you do all the interviews as well?
5Yes, I interviewed all the staff, who made some good observations,
6and I interviewed some of the students.
7The students said little that was interesting.
8They don't seem to care that much.
9It was the cleaners, surprisingly, who revealed the most relevant facts.
10That's not surprising to me.
11They empty all the bins, so they see the waste first-hand,
12whereas the staff just throw things away without thinking.
13What item was most commonly disposed of?
14Well, it really depended on where I interviewed.
15In the cafeteria precinct,
16obviously paper plates and cups were thrown away all over the place.
17There was almost no attempt at recycling.
18However, across the university in general,
19it was paper copying that filled up most bins,
20far more than plastic, or other forms of waste.
21Do people care about this, then?
22Well, some do, if you can believe them.
23I must have interviewed about 30% of customers in the cafeteria,
24and the results were mixed.
25Out of all the people I interviewed, well over half,
26maybe about 55% of them, were quite honest about it,
27telling me that they had little concern.
28The other fraction, 45%, were more troubled.
29Yes, but do they do anything about it?
30Surprisingly, quite a significant percentage do do something,
31even if they aren't particularly concerned.
32I mean, small things.
33About 10% bring their own cups to the cafeteria, for example,
34and at least 1/3 said they use recycling bins,
35so, in total, it's an equal split between those who do something, or those who don't.
36So why do so many people remain inactive,
37particularly over an issue they should care about more?
38I think they do care, and many of them are prepared to do something.
39Obviously, there's an element of laziness,
40but I'd say that it's relatively small.
41If they knew what to do, and if stringent systems existed,
42or if the importance of this was made clearer to them,
43I'm sure you'd see a much larger percentage of people actively working towards helping our environment.
44Well, there's cause for optimism, at least.
45Clearly then, there's a significant waste of paper here at this university,
46so I've worked out one practical suggestion which could help reduce it -
47specifically, the waste from the excess photocopying.
48Let me hear it, then.
49Ah obviously, for a start,
50we've got to ensure that people, including the staff,
51without exception, copy both sides of a page.
52We can't tolerate single-sided copying. It's just far too wasteful.
53Absolutely. Just more trees being chopped down.
54But as people are doing copying,
55there may be adjustments, and practice copying,
56producing single-sided copies or blank pages not wanted and not intended for use.
57These need to be deposited into a tray for intended recycling -
58you know, for recopying onto the blank side of the page.
59But people don't usually do that.
60I'm afraid it's just human nature.
61No matter how unimportant the copying is, they prefer to use fresh paper.
62Yeah, I agree with you,
63which is why you need to display these papers right in front of everyone,
64with a clear sign, 'Please Reuse', to make it easy for them to do so.
65They still won't do it.
66I know. That's why you take some of these papers, and regularly stack them inside the copier,
67in a special tray, once a day, say, in the morning.
68Well, that's getting better, making it easier for them to use the paper,
69but still, I'm afraid many won't.
70That's why you allow everyone to select this tray when copying.
71You distribute numbers or codes to every person,
72giving them special access to this recycling tray.
73Every time they use papers from this, it's tallied up to their account.
74I know I'm sounding a bit negative, or even cynical here...
75but why should they bother using that tray?
76Because the person who does the most copying from this recycling tray gets, say, a cinema pass,
77or lottery ticket, or some other sort of reward.
78Ah, right! Now that's a system which might just work.
79Let's trial it in the office and see what happens.