Dear Editors,
In trying to keep last year’s momentum rolling, the Sustainability Club has been compiling an ever-growing list of ways to reduce waste around campus–one of which has to do with the way The Panel is distributed. We noticed that each time a new edition is released, everyone receives a copy, reads through it, and eventually throws it out, totaling over 450 newspapers in the trash or recycling. Recycling the papers is a great alternative to throwing them out, but what if some of those papers didn’t have to be printed in the first place? We would like to offer a proposition: instead of printing each student an individual copy of The Panel, send out a survey to determine who would like a hard copy and send everyone else a link to the online edition.
Now, we recognize that there is something satisfying when everyone in the lunchroom is finishing up lunch and reading the newest edition of The Panel, but we think losing that is a small price to pay for the amount of waste you could reduce. Speaking of prices to pay, this could significantly reduce The Panel’s operational costs. We would love if you were fully on board with this plan; however, we remain open to suggestions or refinements to it.
It’s the small victories like these that can lead us towards a more sustainable campus.
Thanks for reading,
Colin Braun and the Sustainability Club
