Algonquin is required to pay the Ontario Stewardship Program fees to recycle paper publications. Can we save money by going online?

The Ontario Stewardship Program reports on the amount of waste material produced by Algonquin (paper publications such as the Oncourse catalogue, the Viewbook of courses, Algonquin Times, bond paper printing, etc.), plastic bags from Connections and plastic containers (HDPE) from the Marketplace cafeteria) that have the potential to end up in BlueBins in households and be recycled.

Algonquin pays a fee each year based upon the amount of waste/recyclables produced. All of the funds collected from the “producers” essentially pays for the running of the collection and recycling programs provided by the municipalities.
The program sets a standard estimate that a FTE (full time equivalent) student produces.

The rest is based on the weight of the printed material. Magazine style publications (classified under Viewbook) weigh the most because the paper is glossy and thicker.

Three Scenarios were provided to calculate the fees Algonquin would pay:

Scenario A – Viewbook uses the magazine rate

Scenario B – Viewbook uses the cheaper newsprint rate

I used another spreadsheet and created a third scenario to see what would happen if the publications went online instead:

Scenario C – Viewbook prints less by going online (an estimated rate).

The pie chart shows the majority of the cost goes to the magazine because of the weight and distribution.

The bar charts show the consistent decrease in cost when the cheaper rates are applied across the above scenarios.

The horizontal charts show that it would be cheaper to produce the magazines online and reduce recycling costs considerably.

The data shows that it is cheaper to go online rather than print. But the story begins there. How willing are people to give up print totally?