Paper Consumption at TU Dortmund
Since 2015, data on paper consumption at TU Dortmund University has been reported and published annually in an essay called "Papieratlas". A central system makes it possible to track the total paper consumption of all faculties, institutes and the administration. All paper used is converted into DIN A4 size, for example, one DIN A3 paper counts as two DIN A4 papers.
With the introduction of digital systems such as SAP and digital course catalogues as well as examination systems, paper consumption fell from about 24 million sheets of DIN A4 in 2015 to about 15 million sheets on average in the following 4 years.
Due to the restrictions on face-to-face lectures and the switch to online teaching as well as home office, only 6.5 million sheets were used in the first year of the Corona pandemic. This is more than 8 million sheets less than the year before.
The diagram shows the annual development of paper usage (in A4 sheets) and the recycling rate (as a percentage) from 2015 to 2023. The bars represent paper consumption, divided into normal paper and recycled paper. A line shows the recycling rate as a percentage. Water and electricity consumption and CO2-emissions are also shown.
Exact figures can be found in the tables:
| year | Recycled paper [sheet of A4 paper] | Recycled paper Water consumption [l] | Recycled paper Electricity consumption [kWh] | Recycled paper CO2-emissions[t] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 5588776 | 571658 | 116975 | 25 |
| 2016 | 2777672 | 284119 | 58138 | 12 |
| 2017 | 5051500 | 516702 | 105730 | 22 |
| 2018 | 5231958 | 535160 | 109507 | 23 |
| 2019 | 4812488 | 492254 | 100727 | 21 |
| 2020 | 2332107 | 238544 | 48812 | 10 |
| 2021 | 1385159 | 141683 | 28992 | 6 |
| 2022 | 1964199 | 200912 | 41111 | 9 |
| 2023 | 17771000 | 181150 | 37068 | 8 |
| year | Paper (sheet of A4 paper) | Paper Water consumption [l] | Paper Electricity consumption [kWh] | PaperCO2 emissions[t] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18791983 | 4894507 | 1005445 | 99 |
| 2016 | 12133279 | 3160199 | 649,178 | 64 |
| 2017 | 9958210 | 2593687 | 532803 | 53 |
| 2018 | 10508560 | 2737030 | 562249 | 56 |
| 2019 | 9846266 | 2564531 | 526814 | 52 |
| 2020 | 4119455 | 1072942 | 220407 | 22 |
| 2021 | 2881158 | 750418 | 154153 | 15 |
| 2022 | 3914521 | 1019565 | 209443 | 21 |
| 2023 | 3584500 | 933609 | 191785 | 19 |
| Year | Recycling rate [%] |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 22,9 |
| 2016 | 18,6 |
| 2017 | 33,7 |
| 2018 | 33,2 |
| 2019 | 32,8 |
| 2020 | 36,1 |
| 2021 | 32,5 |
| 2022 | 33,4 |
| 2023 | 33,1 |
Amount of recycled paper
The share of recycled paper used at TU has been around 33 % or slightly higher since 2017. In 2020, 2.3 million sheets of recycled paper were consumed, slightly increasing the rate to 36%.
The sustainability strategy of the TU from 2021 includes the goal of increasing the use of recycled paper to at least 80% by 2025. Using recycled paper instead of virgin fibre paper saves 100% of used wood, 60% of energy, 60% of water and about 20% of CO2 emissions, based on the entire production process (Source: ifeu 2006 and Initiative Pro Recycling , provided in german) .