For Earth’s sake! Why the paper hand in should die

The winds of climate change are blowing. Hurricane Sandy, flooding in Venice and the horizontal Fife rain against which no waterproof hood provides any protection. We should, like, do something […]


The winds of climate change are blowing. Hurricane Sandy, flooding in Venice and the horizontal Fife rain against which no waterproof hood provides any protection. We should, like, do something guys. 

Perhaps a carbon tax would help. Maybe we should all drive electric cars. I don’t know. But I do know that we could start by getting rid of printed essay hand-ins. During a short-lived flirtation with Sustainable Development in first year I remember that I’ve-finally-finished feeling being tempered when someone asked me where we had to hand them in. My other subjects required only the click of a button on MMS; SD required we trudge from our hall on the hinterland to the Irvine building to drop them into a box. 

Printing things should really not be necessary in 2012.  Think about the expense, and difficulty persuading the library printers to spew forth your work, and having to stuff the wretched sheets up your jumper to save them from the aforementioned rain. All needless. All annoying. However the real conceit is that in an ostensibly environmentally friendly University we are still required to use all that paper which will eventually end up in the bin.

Some have argued that the journey, essay in hand, to whatever school office building is required gives a Tenzing-and-Hillary-esque sense of achievement. They are of the “cold showers are character building” school of thought, and they are wrong.  Also, if our tutors are antediluvian and find marking on a computer screen a stretch, then they are welcome to print the essays off at their own expense. 

This unjust impingement on our time and resources must end. Reason with your module coordinators. Barrack your class reps. Hail Amanda Litherland in the bop. Tell them all that the days of the midday dash to the essay box should go the way of the tape cassette, and stay there. 

Join the Campaign for Paper Freedom. Launch party TBC.

image © the guardian