After years of activism, Staples revises paper policy

Grinnell FTP group contributed to nationwide effort

by Lola Garcia

Staff Writer

The members of Grinnell’s Free the Planet have reason to celebrate.

Their Paper Campaign sub-group, part of nationwide grassroots campaign to encourage the use of recycled paper, was able to declare a major victory this week when Staples conceded to all demands made by a coalition of various environmental groups.

The office-supply giant, the fastest-growing in the world, agreed to demands of environmentalists in a press conference Tuesday. The new guidelines are the first of their kind in the paper-supply industry. Staples has decided to average 30 percent post-consumer recycled content in all their paper products, phase out paper products from endangered forests, and create an environmental affairs division that will be responsible for reporting the environmental results of the policy.

“This is the result of efforts from concerned citizens across the country publicly demanding Staples to stop selling our forests,” said Linda Wells ’05, one of the three leaders of Grinnell’s chapter of Free the Planet.

Since 2000, the “Paper Campaign” has mobilized organizations from across the country into a powerful coalition. 80 percent of those organizations have been student groups. Free the Planet and groups from Iowa State University, Drake University, and Simpson College all staged demonstrations in Iowa. “[The campaign] gives incredible power to student groups,” said Wells.

This type of grassroots coalition, she said, marks “the beginning of a new era in environmental campaign[ing].”

Those student groups organized call-ins, postcard campaigns, and staged over 600 protests at various Staples stores across the country. Free the Planet protested at Staples stores in Des Moines and Ankeney.

The recent victory has inspired the Free the Planet members to continue the push for more recycled products. They plan to shift the paper campaign to a variety of other targets, including Office Max, Office Depot, and Corporate Express. Molly Offer-Westort ‘05, the leader of the FTP Paper Campaign subgroup, said the group plans to focus on these new targets “as much as we did on Staples.”

Overall, the Grinnellians involved consider the experience very important. “[This campaign] shows we have a say in what is happening in our country,” said Offer- Westort, “it is very exciting.”