July 26th

As the week of the 20th came to an end i was offered the opportunity to extend my stay at Pacific Attorney Group. I was honored to have been given the extension and i  decided to stay until the end of the month.

After spending a little over two months at the firm i began to notice a few things about the way it handled its waste. I would frequently see trash cans filled with paper  that were simply being thrown away. The firms receptionist handles hundreds of different articles of mail which sometimes end up in the trash. The remaining mail is then distributed to the paralegals and hearing representatives. Each person then makes notes of the correspondence they receive and throws whatever paper they don't need into the trash.

Not only did unneeded mail end up in the trash but also drafts of documents that were printed also ended up being thrown away. Since there were many new employees entering the firm, there were many instances where someone would print out a court document or a letter to a client and once it was reviewed by the paralegal they would need to make corrections and reprint the document. The drafts would pile up and were eventually thrown away with the rest of the trash.

I began to wonder where all the paper went and whether or not it was being recycled. After asking the paralegal about the firm's recycling policy i learned that it did not have one. Taking Dickinson's ideologies into account i decided to do something to improve the firms sustainability. Conveniently there an open office on the Worker's Compensation section of the firm which meant that there was an extra trashcan that was not being used. After asking the receptionist if a recycling bin would be useful and running the idea by my supervisor i took the spare trashcan and labeled it "paper only."After all i was able to find two bins to designate for paper waste. These bins will be emptied but instead of being combined with the rest of the trash they will be recycled.

Sustainability in the workplace is still a relatively new idea but as new business arise we should see an increase in the importance of making business "greener."Being at Dickinson has given me a first hand look at the importance of sustainability and i'm glad i was able to make a small difference for Pacific Attorney Group.