The Paper Machine
When people think of information technology, they seldom think of the cellulose-based matrix which has been a mainstay of that technology for the last few centuries at least, and was first deployed millennia ago. But paper, and the technologies that allow for making it and marking it, is something ubiquitous in our human environment. It is hard to find places with none at all.
In fact, a quick calculation shows that most of our civic institutions are enormous consumers of paper. Supposing a school with 3000 students charges them each about $100 a year for photocopied or printed materials. Let's next suppose that the cost of printing or photocopying a single sheet (considering that this is bulk production) is 2.5 cents. That would mean 4000 sheets per student, and TWELVE MILLION (yes, 12,000,000) sheets of paper consumed per year.
Even if we tweak the figures generously, to $60 per year per student and 3 cents per sheet, we'd still have 2000 sheets per student and 6,000,000 sheets a year. If we were to assume that the school prints on both sides of each sheet, that's still 3,000,000 sheets of paper a year. A ream of paper is 500 sheets, so we are talking about 6000 reams.
Do we really need to print that much material each year? Is a school nothing but a paper machine, endlessly producing sheets of stuff that are digested and transformed into higher-class sheets called examination scripts, and then even higher-class ones called diplomas?
I am sure that this is unnecessary. In fact, I am quite certain that the money such a school requires (and budgets), is always in excess of necessity. This is the nature of such machines.
In fact, a quick calculation shows that most of our civic institutions are enormous consumers of paper. Supposing a school with 3000 students charges them each about $100 a year for photocopied or printed materials. Let's next suppose that the cost of printing or photocopying a single sheet (considering that this is bulk production) is 2.5 cents. That would mean 4000 sheets per student, and TWELVE MILLION (yes, 12,000,000) sheets of paper consumed per year.
Even if we tweak the figures generously, to $60 per year per student and 3 cents per sheet, we'd still have 2000 sheets per student and 6,000,000 sheets a year. If we were to assume that the school prints on both sides of each sheet, that's still 3,000,000 sheets of paper a year. A ream of paper is 500 sheets, so we are talking about 6000 reams.
Do we really need to print that much material each year? Is a school nothing but a paper machine, endlessly producing sheets of stuff that are digested and transformed into higher-class sheets called examination scripts, and then even higher-class ones called diplomas?
I am sure that this is unnecessary. In fact, I am quite certain that the money such a school requires (and budgets), is always in excess of necessity. This is the nature of such machines.
etched with acid at 8:48:00 am
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