It’s just another day as a University student. You struggle to get out of bed after a long night of studying just to put some more knowledge in your head. The life of a college student is hard and stressful, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also strive for environmental sustainability. There are many actions you can take that will not only help the environment, but also benefit your student lifestyle.
BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Making small, convenient changes in your life to become greener may not seem to make a big difference, but if many students make these changes, we can collectively reduce our carbon footprint. Also, living a sustainable lifestyle as a student is likely to transfer to when we enter the “real-world.” Providing an example for other people to follow also encourages a collective green lifestyle. For more on student environmental activism, check out this guide !
Cost: Medium. Some of the tips may ask for purchases that are a bit pricey, but in the end, you will actually benefit from these purchases because they prevent you from having to purchase other things repeatedly.
Time and Effort: Low to medium. All it takes is some getting used to. Once it becomes a part of your daily routine, you won’t even think about it!
1. Lifestyle Changes
Before we talk about purchases that would help promote a more sustainable student life, a commitment must be made to actually want to be greener. This does not mean flipping your life upside down, converting to veganism and forgoing anything artificial, but rather to do small things that make a big difference.
The most important lifestyle change one should make is to recycling program , start one at your own house and take weekly or biweekly trips to the local recycling facility. Recycling plastics is twice as efficient as burning them1 and not only that, burning plastic emits carcinogenic fumes.
Don’t just recycle, reuse before you recycle! Paper makes up about 29 percent of all the municipal solid waste, and although in 2010 Americans recycled 63% of their paper, there is room for improvement.2 Many companies specialize in making products from recycled paper, so there are practical uses for the paper. If your campus does not have a strong recycling program, take initiative! It takes just one voice for an idea to start! Here’s a guide to making a community recycling project that might be a good way to get other students started and excited about recycling ☺
2. On the Go
Everyone is busy in college. There’s always a class to run to, a meeting to make, a study group to join, an exam to take, or a paper to write. Make life easier by having these sustainable and convenient tools to keep you energized and healthy for your busy life.
Spending money on individual plastic bottled waters is both wasteful and cost inefficient. Buy reusable water bottles to bring water with you on the go and to stay hydrated during those days that you aren’t home. There are many reusable water bottle out there on the market, but the Bobble © is a good choice for students in areas where tap water is not consumable. The Bobble has its own water filter at the tip that you change about every 2 months.3 For more on why you should favor reusable water bottles, read here !
Another reusable water bottle reminds you of the positive impact you are having on the environment by using the product. The 999bottle has a tracker that you rotate to indicate how many times you refilled the bottle. This allows you to see how many plastic bottles you saved by drinking out of a reusable water bottle. In the United States we purchase over 29 billion plastic water bottles a year and only 13% of that is recycled.5 So every bottle you fill with tap water and drink makes you healthier while not adding to the billions of water bottles that are littered across our cities and oceans.
On the note of water bottles, many people need coffee or tea in the morning to stay awake. Because of the rush of the morning, many students go to a local coffee shop and purchase a drink there. Campuses such as the University of California – Berkeley use compostable cups to serve their drinks, but zero waste is even better than compostable waste. A thermos is a great investment for those who are frequent tea and coffee drinkers. Most coffee places would be more than happy to fill your own thermos with their brew rather than use another one of their cups, and they often do so at a discount so you should save money in the long run.
It is very important to stay hydrated during class and studying, but let’s not forget the fuel we need to stay focused! Many students use plastic bags to carry snacks, but those are only one time use and can become a hassle to repurchase over and over again. Tupperware—preferably glass food storage containers—is a great way to store your snacks and meals without wasting plastic bags, or having to order to-go all the time! Stay healthy and stay green!
After moving out of the dorms, students have to purchase groceries and amenities on their own. First of all, it is important to know the source of your food. Buy reusable bag instead! It is a great way to show off your style while being green!
3. Innovative work – Studying
The purpose of obtaining a higher education is to learn more and become an intelligent individual. Well that and help you succeed in a career that you love that also puts food on the table! In this vein, students spend a majority of their time studying, reading, memorizing, and trying to enlighten themselves in their passions. Some professors or TAs print out everything to make it more convenient for students to read, highlight, and analyze articles and papers. However, with the new technologies available in modern society, there are ways to save pages and pages of paper. The best way to go paperless and still maintain the feel of studying with paper readings and notes is the tablet.
The iPad© has been a product on the market for quite a while and although it is advertised as an entertainment device, there are many useful applications that will not only make studying and note taking more convenient, but will also save paper. If you are not an Apple© fan, no worries! Both Android© and Microsoft© have released their own versions of a tablet that work similarly. I personally purchased the Nexus 7 because I wasn’t willing to wait for the iPad mini to come out. It is a very portable and convenient tablet that has been integrated into my daily life. Instead of using a paper planner, I use Google © calendar because it can sync to my lap top and still be portable so I can pull it out whenever I want. The Adobe Reader © application allows you to download documents to read, mark, notate, and study in the same way you could a paper copy. These apps come with the Nexus 7 but there are many that can be purchased on either the Play Store or the App Store for Apple.
Finally, it is important to help other people see the importance of sustainable living. Student life is busy, but that doesn’t mean we should be careless and forget about the importance of helping our planet. Study what you love while still helping the planet we all love and spread the message. The students are the next generation, let’s make it a green and clean one.
