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The following is a two-part question.
Q. How much paper does all of Penn State, including branch campuses, use in a year?
-- Wondering at University Park
A. Given the overall size and geographic dispersion of Penn State, precise consumption figures for all paper types and grades are difficult, and in some instances, impossible to obtain. Within several product categories, however, statistics are available. For example, the University consumes approximately 150 million sheets or 30,000 cartons of copier paper annually. Penn State consumes approximately 10,000 cases of paper towels and 7,500 cases of toilet tissue or 360,000 rolls per year. Figures for the multitude of printing grades and weights are difficult to obtain since many publications are obtained from outside suppliers.
Q. Couldn't the colleges, if they combined their consumer power, obtain a cheaper price (relative to virgin paper) on recycled paper?
Combined purchasing power, or the principle of economies of scale, is and has been the basic tenet behind Penn State's General Stores and Document Services operations. By combining many small orders into one large order, the University community benefits through improved prices and better control of product quality and distribution. Without this pooling of requirements, the University would most certainly pay higher prices for all goods and services. No better example of this principle in practice exists, than in the current pricing of copier paper through General Stores. Through the pooling of requirements and commitment of the University's Copy Center Services, the price difference between non-recycled and recycled copier paper has been reduced to just 5 percent or $1 per carton. Through effective negotiations by Purchasing Services, recycled copier paper has become affordable to the University community where the market had previously dictated a 20 percent premium.
In another application of the principle of economies of scale, Document Services currently uses recycled printing papers, index stock and document bond for all standard applications while Copy Center Services has established a recycled copier paper as standard issue. Additionally, all of the paper towels and toilet tissue are of recycled content paper.
-- Joyce Haney, manager, Purchasing Services
If you have a question for the Glad you asked column, please send it, along with your name and office phone number, via e-mail to ask@psu.edu. For publication purposes, Intercom and Online Intercom will use the initials of the individuals sending the questions and their campus location or department, depending on the nature of the question. Submissions must include a contact name and telephone number so that Intercom can verify the source. Requests for anonymity will be honored.
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