For the green and international party S&I, stopping the practice of printing flyers altogether has been on the wish list for a while. ‘It is difficult because you lose the advantages it offers. Students will remember you for longer if they have a flyer,’ says Amit Choudhary of S&I. But the party persevered this year and made use of a petition: the more students signed, the fewer flyers will be printed.
During the elections of last year, the three parties printed more than 10,000 flyers between them. Choudhary: ‘In our eyes, that is a waste of paper. Our aim is not to use any paper at all, and this is the first step.’ About 100 students have already signed the petition, which means 2900 flyers instead of 3000 for S&I. ‘It is a small step,’ admits Choudhary, ‘but it is a start.’
For the coming elections, CSF has ordered 2500 flyers, fewer than usual. Joanne Rink: ‘We want to do our best to reuse as many as possible. Flyers often end up in the flyer bin.’ For the Christian party, sustainability is high on the list of priorities, says Rink. Their newsletter is only distributed digitally, for example.
VeSte is not joining the initiative by S&I and CSF, but does applaud it. The elections for the Student Council take place between 28 May and 1 June. The candidate list can be consulted on resource-online.nl. You can sign the S&I petition on the party’s Facebook page.