Many University departments, labs commit to buying recycled paper

University Park, Pa. -- Recycled office paper is now available to Penn State departments for less than the price of virgin paper, and some of the University’s biggest paper users are already on board.
 
In the past, many of Penn State General Stores’ customers shied away from recycled brands due to high costs, but now it provides recycled paper at a significantly cheaper price than virgin paper. General Stores’ top buyers of office paper, including the on-campus student computer labs, have signed on to purchase the recycled paper.
 
“We asked many of (our customers) if they would switch to recycled paper if we could get it for them at a cheaper rate,” Commodity Manager of Purchasing Services Rich Fitzgerald said. “It works for every one, because it’s the environmental choice and also offers savings to departments.”
 
Paper buyers will see close to a five percent savings per carton compared to the virgin paper cost. To get the lower price, Penn State Purchasing and General Stores collaborated to buy the paper by the truckload to obtain greater volume discounts.
 
This paper is bleach free and made of 30 percent recycled paper. According to Haney, this benefits the environment in several ways without sacrificing the quality of the paper.
 
“Recycled paper is much different than it was 10 or so years ago,” she said. “They’ve really improved it. We’ve been using it in our office printers and copiers for several years with no problems.”
 
The available recycled paper uses 30 percent fewer trees and causes an 11 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as its production uses 13 percent less energy.
 
Making recycled paper available to Penn State departments was a part of the Finance & Business Environmental Stewardship Key Initiative, which aims to find new, green ways of doing business.