Student Campaign Pushes Switch to Recycled Paper

A group of secondary pupils has convinced 16 principals from the English Schools Foundation to use recycled printing paper, though this will cost the schools an additional HK$200,000 annually.

As was reported by South China Morning Post, at a meeting of ESF’s committee of principals, Ike Park, a Year 12 pupil at Renaissance College, proposed the request to the primary and secondary school heads.

According to Park, “each tonne of recycled paper helps reduce about 24 trees, 54 million British thermal units of heat energy and 3.3 cubic metres of landfill space, but low local demand for the material meant prices were higher here.”

Park pointed out there are many reasons local schools have been slow to switch to recycled paper, “Hongkongers seem to just love to have their paper purely white, and recycled paper, unfortunately, is a little yellow compared with virgin paper. Some also have doubts about the quality of recycled paper and, since it costs more anyway, schools just did not have a real impetus.”

“We plan on convincing other schools to join. Large-scale environmental action is much more influential. Imagine how many trees we can save if this movement spreads across all Hong Kong school,” added Park.

Kelly Yang, assisting the student campaign, opined: “If you do the math, it doesn’t work out as that much more.”

The managing editor of education organisation The Kelly Yang Project and columnist at the South China Morning Post added: “I think it’s about HK$1,000 or HK$2,000 extra per month per school.”