Print management software - Help your school save money

Our print management software solution is used by many schools throughout the UK. All have seen huge benefits by implementing this printer management technology.

What about schools that haven’t utilised our print management solution, or those schools who are looking for some extra inspiration in reducing their waste output, not just paper based. Well, we have done some digging (metaphorically speaking) and have pulled out some interesting facts about schools, both primary and secondary and their waste output.

Below are some very interesting stats that anyone involved in education will find of interest. Read the post and get some inspiration on ways to reduce your waste output and make your school and local environment greener, without covering it in a large tub of mint green paint. Links to the full reports can be found at the bottom of this article.

School Waste Facts

1. The education sector disposes of 615,117 tonnes of waste per year
2. Schools spend between £300 and £1000 per year on waste disposal
3. Primary and Secondary schools throw away the equivalent weight of 185 double decker buses every day
4. The figure above equates to 258,000 tonnes of waste per year
5. From the above figure 186,500 tonnes of waste is disposed of from Primary schools, 30% of this is paper and card
6. The remaining 71,800 tonnes of waste is thrown from Secondary schools, 39% is paper and card
7. On average Primary schools generate 45kg of waste per pupil, per academic year
8. Secondary schools generate 22kg per pupil
9. In Secondary schools 40% of the paper waste captured is recyclable
10. Subsequently, 30% of paper waste in Primary schools was also recyclable

It’s all well and good that we show you some facts about school waste, but we can hear you, Altman Technologies, what are the solutions?...? Well, below are five brief solutions on what you can do to reduce your environmental impact. Call us biased but we find suggestion five to be a brilliant waste reduction solution.

Solution 1 

Reduce waste in the first place (apologies for the dodgy rhyme), this is a great one too  implement. Just take a look around and see what can be reduced or cut down upon. Buy what you need, and monitor closely. Having a well audited system can help you take full advantage of all the resources you have within your school, and reduce purchasing of goods that you have but you just don’t realise. 

Solution 2

Re-use, re-use and re-use again! Rather than use an item once and throw it away why not re-use it and get more from the product. If items are getting a bit dilapidated before throwing them away can they be repaired and used again? Could you donate them to a local charity? Being thrifty is an art form and one that should be heralded, let pupils come up with “re-usable items” ideas and see how much stuff you can re-use in your school, and see waste output drop.

Solution 3

Recycle, this is an obvious one, and one that most of us do on a daily basis within our home. Adapt these ideas to a larger school environment and you are on to a winner. Look at areas where there are large amounts of waste, print rooms, art classes, technology areas! Can you highlight recycling boxes in these areas and make pupils more aware of recycling and why it has its benefits.

Another idea is to launch a recycling initiative and get all the pupils involved, engage the pupils with activities that they have played a part in creating and reap the rewards as you get more engaged and environmentally conscious students, see the Eco-School website for ideas.

There are literally endless ways to recycle, we are sure you are already employing some, but is it time to re-evaluate and see what new options you can add?

Solution 4

Reduce food and packaging waste. According to reports food waste makes up one third of all school waste. Food waste when breaking down can release a large number of very dangerous gases. So what can be done to reduce this number?

Where possible why not introduce compost bins to dispose of food and vegetable matter in a green and more economical way? Get pupils interested in composting and teach them how it works, getting pupils engaged is a great start to increasing recycling within schools.

Encourage healthy eating. At my old school we had tuck shops, drinks machines, sweet machines and a whole host of unhealthy food options. They have since got rid of these and replaced them with healthy options; this has not only made pupils healthier, more alert and active. It has also reduced the amount of waste that is found within the school, they are also pretty sure it has lightened the load of the already exceptionally busy caretaker and cleaners.

Soltuion 5

Reduce paper and card consumption. Yes, the area we are experts in. We have helped many schools with our Pcounter print management solution. Not only can you monitor output, enforce duplex print, restrict the amount of print output per device, re-route large print jobs to more economical devices and a whole host of other features, just installing the software reduces peoples print output by making them question whether they need to print their document.

We also have a nifty little feature that will disallow a job if it’s been clicked multiple times, so those eager students won’t print 50 copies of the same document and make off with the 1 copy that they needed.

Download a 60 day FREE trial of Pcounter, our print management software solution today.

There you have it, some interesting facts about waste in schools. To learn more about school waste, read this waste reduction advice guide.

The full waste in schools report is available here.