You may have already noticed the green stickers on paper towel dispensers around virtually all campus bathrooms that provide a gentle reminder that “These Come from Trees”. This past spring, Students for Sustainability brought this small but powerful new initiative to the attention of the Environmental Stewardship Committee who then worked with the Custodial Department within the Facilities team to implement it.
The Guerilla Paper Waste Elimination Project, the non-profit organization behind these stickers, says that each sticker will reduce paper towel consumption by 15%, or up to 100 pounds of paper. They estimate that one tree can produce about 100 pounds of paper, so think about how many paper towel dispensers on campus: that’s a lot of trees being saved! With roughly 300 million “trees” worth of disposable paper products consumed in the US each year, this is just another way that St. Edward’s University is making a sustainable impact felt here and beyond.
A big thanks to Students for Sustainability for discovering this and to the Facilities team for helping to make it happen! You can find out more about the These Come From Trees project here.