Printing graduate papers costs 70,000 trees a year in China   

高校毕业生人均打印7份论文 每年消耗7万棵树

临近5月，高校毕业生在为最后的答辩做准备，各大高校周边的复印店生意火了起来，毕业生都在打印毕业论文。《法制晚报》记者近日采访发现，毕业生答辩时，需要准备四五本纸质版论文用于评审，而之前的修改，至少需要打印两次。平均一个毕业生需要打印7本纸质版论文。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- Excessive printing of graduation theses during graduation season is putting enormous pressure on the country's forest resources, the Beijing-based Mirror Evening News reported.

Kong Qiang, an undergraduate student, said his 30-page thesis was printed three times for his professor's modifications. For the final thesis defense, he has to print another seven copies to the seven members of the thesis defense committee.

The newspaper said a student has to print seven copies of their thesis on average. Altogether 7.27 million students will graduate this year, and all their theses will use up 4,000 tons of paper. More than 70,000 20-year-old trees will be cut to satisfy the demand.

"It is a huge waste," Kong said.

Printing shops near universities are crowded with students, and one shop owner boasted the paper used in his shop is all made from pulp of good wood.

A professor at the University of International Business and Economics said hard copies are for academic use and thesis reviewers can more easily write their comments, compared to electronic versions.

And all thesis papers will be filed as performance records for students.