From living in a dorm to a small, off-campus apartment, trying to stay environmentally friendly in college has had its challenges. In my two years since I’ve been at school, I’ve worked to develop 10 easy habits that have saved me money while reducing my carbon footprint.
- Stop buying disposable water bottles. There’s simply no excuse for it anymore.* You can find cheap reusable water bottles just about anywhere nowadays. As a matter of fact, you can probably pick one up for free at any on-campus event ℅ several RSO’s. Then, take the money you saved from buying all of those water bottles and treat yourself to a water pitcher with a filter.
- Make your wardrobe a little more sustainable. Buy your fall essentials from a consignment shop, thrift store, or even a yard sale instead of dropping a wad of cash at the mall. You’ll save money and do your part in reducing manufacturing demands. Plus, vintage is always in. A few of my favorite consignment/thrift stores here in Louisville are: Fat Rabbit (Germantown), Hey Tiger (Bardstown Rd.), Acorn (Bardstown Rd.) and of course the UL Free Store (on campus).
- Donate, don’t throw away. This goes for just about anything: clothes, old-but-working appliances, art, you name it. Many of these things can be donated to the afore-mentioned thrift and consignment stores, reducing the amount of trash to be put in landfills. Sometimes, you can even score a little cash from your unwanted items. Just because you can’t see the worth in something doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be valuable to someone else. My roommate and I stumbled across a yard sale just the other day and walked off with a toaster oven that would have otherwise been thrown away, and we love it dearly.
- Buy local. I cannot express the importance of buying locally-sourced food (and other products) enough. This not only helps circulate money through our local economy, but is more environmentally friendly than shopping at supermarkets, reducing transportation of your food or goods and thus the carbon footprint associated with them. Not to mention, the quality of supermarket produce is laughable compared to what you can pick up at a farmer’s market. Have you ever actually had a good peach from Walmart? I didn’t think so.
- Will you just recycle already? It really isn’t hard. The way I see it, if you’re willingly throwing away things that could have just as easily been recycled, you're no better than someone who litters. I know that sometimes it seems really inconvenient to recycle, but whether or not you see it right away, it makes a difference.
- Ride sustainably. Ride your bike to the library instead of taking your car. Carpool to that party. Take the bus to that thrift store you recently read about. The public transportation system can be a beautiful thing if you know how to use it correctly. I’ll admit the first time I rode a bus I took the wrong one and ended up in the heart of downtown when I was supposed to be a block away from campus. But that was the past, and now I can navigate my way just about anywhere now that the TARC system (free with your U of L student ID) has my back.
- Unplug your phone when it’s charged. This goes for other electronic devices, too: laptop chargers, lamps, beloved toaster ovens. Even if they’re turned off, if they’re still plugged in, they’re still using up energy. Not only is this just plain wasteful, it’s going to end up costing you more money in electricity overages.
- Shorten your showers by 5 minutes. Time yourself. Hold yourself to it. Then shorten it by five more minutes. Shortening your shower by five minutes can save dozens of gallons of water weekly. I used to use shower time to think about life’s greatest mysteries until I realized how much water I was wasting. Now, I shower quickly and efficiently and pontificate while riding that bus I mentioned earlier.
- Use reusable grocery bags. This is a cause near and dear to my heart. Without fail, every time my roommates and I would go grocery shopping last year, we always forgot our reusable grocery bags, forcing us to use plastic bags or buy whatever grocery bags the store had at the register. Because of this, my apartment is full of plastic grocery bags. Some stores let you recycle your used plastic bags, which is great but the more environmentally friendly option is to buy a few of those $1 reusable bags and make a habit of always using them.
- Be more thoughtful about your daily routine. Wash your clothes in cold water. Turn that A/C off and open a window. Print double-sided. Take the stairs. Find one way each week you can change your home life to be a little more green.
Whether you take one habit or you take all 10 habits away from this, know that you’re making a difference! Our planet needs people who are willing to take that extra step in order to make our impact a little more positive.
*If you have access to clean water. I would like to take a second to remind my readers that the people of Flint, Michigan are still in the midst of a clean water crisis. If you would like to donate water to Flint, more information is available through http://www.helpforflint.com/action/
