Yep, that is a lot of paper

box_of_paper.jpgThere was that story this week about how city council meetings in Saratoga Springs are going paperless. And as part of that story, one of the city commissioners mentioned that city hall uses 475 cubic feet of paper every year.

That sounded like a lot of paper to us, but really, how much is it? So we decided to measure that figure against something we could relate to. And this being Saratoga Springs, we picked the track. The result, with how we got it, after the jump.

Here are our assumptions:

1 piece of multi-use office paper is .0038 inches thick

So 1 vertical foot of paper = 3,158 sheets

1 square foot = 144 square inches

1 standard piece of paper = 95.5 square inches

So 1 square foot = 1.5 sheets of paper

And 1 cubic foot of paper = 4,737 sheets of paper

The main course at Saratoga is 1 1/8 miles around and 80 feet wide

So, the track is 475,200 square feet, which is equal to 712,800 sheets of paper

475 cubic feet of paper = 2,250,075 sheets of paper

2,250,075 sheets of paper / 712,800 sheets per trip around the track = 3.16 trips

The Bottom Line

Saratoga Springs City Hall uses enough paper each year to completely cover the main course at the track more than three times over.

Comments

Well, I know they are at least talking about maybe thinking about using synthetic material for the track.. maybe kill 2 birds with one stone & cover it 3 times over with the paper they save.

That's why my mom says I'm the smartest.

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