Every person has their own ecological footprint of a various size. Since behaviour is largely a result of attitudes, sustainability is possible only if people's attitudes change from the throw-away mentality prevalent in today's society to that of a conserver society. All individuals must live sustainably within their own niche whether they live in a third world country where resources are limited, or in a developed country such as Canada where resources are abundant and accessible. As University of Waterloo students, we must also strive to live sustainably on campus.
Waste originating from within the University of Waterloo campus can be looked upon as a system that has sustainable or unsustainable characteristics. Within this system, our group will be focusing upon and analyzing the sub-system of the Imprint newspaper.
In our study, we will be examining the Imprint, the newspaper of the University of Waterloo Federation of Students. The Imprint, also known as "The Voice of Reason", is a publication issued every Friday which is partially funded by the students through negative optioning included within their fee statements. The paper covers a broad range of issues and aspects such as sports, politics, education, religion, and arts. It informs the students, faculty and staff about issues pertaining to university life and provides a public forum for readers to express personal opinions and views.
Waste paper is an environmental problem on campus and on a global scale. The Imprint is very important to sustainability on campus because it can be a useful tool for education about Greening the campus. However, the practices of the production, distribution and disposal of the Imprint themselves may not be sustainable. Our study will look at the degree of sustainability or unsustainability of these practices and what alternatives are available.
We hope that through our investigation, our ideas will be considered and sustainability on campus increased.
The life cycle of an Imprint newspaper includes five stages:
Figure 1: System Design of the Imprint Life Cycle
In order to evaluate the Imprint's system in terms of sustainability, many factors need to be considered. These include quantity of waste, efficiency of the system, and usefulness and availability of the paper. Efficiency of the current system will be analyzed in terms of how the paper is produced, distributed and disposed of and will include economic considerations. Usefulness will be determined by comparing the goals of the Imprints with the goals of the users. Availability will be looked at in terms of how accessible the Imprint is to the university students, faculty and staff and others who have an interest in the paper and wish to read it. By carefully and thoroughly analyzing this system, it will become known if all the components of the system are sustainable.
In order to understand what happens to the Imprint from production to distribution and from distribution to disposal, we will take measurements at these three stages in the life of the Imprint.
We will also be studying disposal methods: is the newspaper being sent to the landfills; is it being recycled; or is it being used for other purposes. We will determine what is done with old Imprints that are left behind at specific locations. Through a questionnaire, we will also determine what users of the Imprint do with the paper after they are finished with it
The necessary data will be collected using several different methods. Questionnaires involving the staff, faculty and students of the University of Waterloo will contribute information dealing with attitudes regarding their reading habits and the current disposal methods used.
Data will also be collected by measuring the inputs and outputs of Imprint copies in several different buildings such as the Campus Centre, a residence, and a classroom building. Members of the group will accompany distributors on their weekly deliveries to the various locations receiving the Imprint both on and off campus. From there, we will keep count of the number of copies delivered to each location. These counts will be done manually. After "x" amount of days (still to be determined), we will return to the same selected locations and count the used and unused papers and the number that have been removed. We will talk to the distributors to determine what is done with the copies that remain at each location.