Adapted from an email I’ve just sent to the Head:

This is beyond ludicrous. If we are each to have a copy of the OHS paperwork , the maths looks like this:
Say 6 risk assessments, 6 SOPs. 20 MSDS sheets, at an average of 5 pages each. Four pages of policy document. Call it 115 pieces of paper. Thirty people in our group. That’s three and a half thousand pieces of paper – best part of 7 reams. That’s nearly half a tree , plus the toner used.
And that’s just one quarter? one third if we’re generous of Level N. I really, really think that this needs a rethink.

Won’t somebody, please, think of the trees?