By Jennifer Trend
The start of school and a new school semester means new textbooks for classes. And new textbooks mean that some teachers will require them to be covered in paper bags, which may not be the wisest course of action.
For starters, there are a handful of teachers that require the textbook to be covered even if the textbook will never be used, much less opened. This means that a paper bag will be wasted on a textbook that could’ve been used for other purposes; it could’ve even been used for a textbook that is used everyday.
I’ve had classes where the teachers made an assignment out of covering the textbook and reiterating how it should be protected from wear– but then I cover the textbook and it sits in my room or locker for the whole year, gathering dust. Protect it from what? The dust that it collected that can be easily wiped off? Oh wait, I’m sorry- the dust that could possibly scratch the cover?
Don’t get me wrong; I have no problem covering my textbook if it means that it’ll be put to good use. There are some classes where I use the textbook almost everyday and it shows. Sometimes the paper bag covering is so beat up, ripped and dirty that I need to replace it halfway through the year. And I understand that if I didn’t cover the textbooks, they would’ve been damaged a long time ago.
What I have a problem is is the fact that covering the textbook does more harm than good on a larger scale than most realize. Using a paper bag on a textbook that will never be used is a paper bag that could’ve served another purpose. My family, for one, never buys paper bags; the only reason we ever do is so that my brothers and I can cover our textbooks. Had we only gotten paper bags for the textbooks we use the most and not those that are never opened, we could’ve saved not only money, but also resources.
Paper bags cost more than plastic bags, and paper bags contain resources that could’ve been used elsewhere. Not buying a paper bag means that one less bag is created. The resources that was used for that bag could’ve been used for some other material, and so on and so forth.
So teachers: maybe before mandating that paper bags be used to cover textbooks, think about how the textbook will be used. You might be saving 30 some trees.
