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