After receiving over 1,800 signatures on a petition, the Campus Greens and The Conservationists now have support from Student Senate in their attempt to have UW-Eau Claire switch to 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled paper.

“We took sheets to class, passed them around the cafeteria – some people even went up and down Towers getting signatures,” said freshman Julia Milliren, vice president of the Campus Greens.

Senate Vice President Matt Flaten said he thinks it’s a good idea.

“It’s the Senate’s position that this is important and would benefit the university,” Flaten said.

“Hopefully the right officials will take notice and take action,” he said.

According to the Senate’s resolution, all academic and administrative departments, offices, computer labs and copy machines would use recycled paper.

However, duplicating services would be exempt for special publishing needs.

“We started this hoping we would get the backing of Student Senate,” Milliren said. “Now we’re hoping to gain support in the upper levels of the administration.”

If the university adopts the policy of using only recycled paper, the additional cost in tuition per student would be $1.94, Flaten said.

Students who signed the petition were told that if the university adopted the policy of using only recycled paper, tuition would be increased slightly, Flaten said.

“The paper we’re talking about isn’t the grayish stuff that they sell in spiral notebooks,” Flaten said. “It is the same quality as the stuff we use now, but it’s better for the environment.”

The use of recycled paper would benefit the environment because it reduces waste and, therefore, saves landfill space, saves energy and promotes preservation of the forests, Flaten said.

Other UW System schools, such as UW-Stevens Point, already have adopted similar policies.

The Campus Greens and The Conservationists are hoping to take the proposal to United Council – the UW System’s student lobbying group in Madison – sometime in June, said Milliren. “We’re really hoping we can do this for all UW schools.”