The Justice

Adieu, paper towels. A month ago, the Department of Residence Life instituted a trial cutback on paper towels for communal bathrooms. Although this was a sudden inconvenience for many of us, going through with the trial was a great decision. But ResLife should take the idea behind the trial several steps further by permanently ceasing to supply paper towels to all bathrooms. The inconveniences that may arise from this initiative are far outweighed by its financial and environmental benefits.

The purchase of paper towels to fill the dispensers throughout the school is almost certainly not a pivotal aspect of the University's annual budget, but it's still significant.

While increasing the University's enrollment or selling some art may yield larger overall amounts of money, ridding ourselves of a reliance on paper towels is a straightforward decision that can be made instantaneously and effortlessly and will yield immediate financial savings. If ResLife decided to stop supplying paper towels for communal bathrooms today, the decision could be implemented simply stopping refills of the paper towel dispensers.

Environmental considerations make it hard to argue against eliminating paper towels from our bathrooms. Paper towels are used once and then disposed of. Although they are often made of recycled materials, we throw them in garbage cans after a single use and ultimately bury them in landfills. And then we buy some more, which means someone has to make some more.

The prospect of mass deforestation within the United States is not currently a major concern, but the processes of cutting down trees and transporting the material to factories and ultimately to Brandeis University, as well as the manufacture of the paper towel itself, all leads, in at least some way, to the release of additional harmful gases into our atmosphere.

Continued...

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