Your mother told you in high school and your science teachers hammered it into your brain every semester from 5th grade until senior year: "Don't take such a long shower!" While your parents were aiming to shorten some of the zeroes on the family's water bill, your teacher was trying to set you on a path to more eco-friendly living – even though you probably still took hour long showers, and your parents still hated it.

A few years ago, eco-friendly living was a chore, a hassle, and a notion altogether best left to the rising hippies of the world. But now it's 2015, and the hippie revival has become mainstream, making the main question after finishing a soda or a beer, "Where's your recycling can?" We are living in a world where taking care of the earth has not only become the norm, but a necessity in increasing the longevity of our beautiful planet.

As sleep-ridden, constantly busy, constantly hungry college students, being green is not usually the first thing on our mind when we wake up late every morning. This list of helpful tips will show you the easiest ways to respect our planet from a college student's perspective: in between eating burritos at Chipotle, studying for midterms, and watching TV.

• DON'T TAKE SUCH A LONG SHOWER – I know you're just standing there in the warm water doing nothing!
  • Make a playlist on your IPod or computer that adds up to about 10 minutes (give or take) and sync it to a Bluetooth shower radio so you can actually hear the music. We named our shower radio Orlando Bloom, so we can impressively tell our friends we showered with Orlando Bloom. Buy one here.
  • By doing this, you will not only be able to set a countdown with all your favorite songs, but it will make you more aware of how much time and water you are wasting while you stand there, doing nothing and contemplating your life choices. Think of it this way: Some places do not even have water to drink, let alone to take a shower in.
• RECYCLE, RECYCLE, RECYCLE – Don't say it's too hard when your landlord literally handed you a free recycling bin!
  
  • It's not rocket science or as hard as your organic chemistry class, so buy another bin from the dollar store or Walmart for super cheap or utilize the one your landlord gave you. And there you have it: a designated spot to throw away all the empties that the boys next door left in your driveway and the empty salad containers you never knew what to do with.
  • Recycling pick-up is usually always on the exact same day as trash pick-up. HOW NEAT IS THAT?
• UNPLUG YOUR LIFE – Your fan and lava lamp do not need to be plugged in while you're racing from the Rec Center to Farmer to McGuffey for 6 consecutive hours.
  • Buy a power strip so you can plug in all your devices that do not have to be on all the time and so you can easily unplug them all at once when you're not at home.
  • This saves energy, because believe it or not, even if something is not on but still plugged in, it is using energy. This will also save on your electric bill, so you are welcome.
• PARTICIPATE IN MEATLESS MONDAY – Or go veg like me, and participate in "Meatless Every-Day-of-Your-Life."
  • I am a bit biased here because I am a vegetarian, but putting my personal opinions aside, I will go straight to the facts: Reducing meat consumption during the week reduces harmful emissions into the environment that are a large part of the food and meat industry. Dedicate one day of the week (it does not, by law, need to be a Monday) to indulge in other great foods and snacks that are not meat-related.
  • To learn more about the meatless movement and other ways it can benefit the planet and your health, go here.
• PICK UP YOUR PLASTICS & TRASH – You may look crazy, but the plastic bag sitting there when there is a trashcan five steps away looks even crazier.
  • Nothing is more infuriating than seeing garbage on a sidewalk while walking to class when there is a visible trashcan just ahead. If you see plastics, make an effort to quickly pick them up on your way to class so they do not end up in The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Yes, that is a real, growing heap of plastics and trash that is threatening the ocean and animals that live in the environment. Watch this video, narrated by an award-winning actor, to see where your plastic bags end up.
• USE LESS PAPER – The English department needs to take a chill pill when it comes to print-outs.
  • If there is one thing that I have learned as a college student, it is that you do not need a notebook for every single class. My roommate taught me the binder trick: buy a big binder and a pack of loose leaf paper, divide the binder with tabs by class subject, and distribute the paper into each subject, buying more paper when you need it. Notebooks end up half-used or not used at all, and more often than not get thrown away rather than being recycled.
  • Save the trees! Trees and plants are how the planet reduces carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which spikes significantly in the winter. Human deforestation is eliminating the earth's natural barrier and protection from harmful greenhouse gasses, something you think we would want to fix rather than making it worse.
• REUSE A WATER BOTTLE OR BUY A REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE – I do not know how much water the average college student drinks in a day, but I imagine it is a lot.
  • Go to Target, Walmart, or your campus bookstore and buy a reusable water bottle that you can fill up from the faucet. If you are worried about water not being filtered, Brita offers a colorful water bottle with a built-in filter that can take the concerning water-fountain water from the geology building and turn it into the best water you've ever had. Buy it here.
• JOIN CAMPUS MYACTIONS! – It's an app and website that keeps track of all the wonderful things you are doing for the environment
  • My roommate is a campus representative for this organization, and let me tell you how cool it is. You can easily log in with your Facebook information, and you can log certain tasks (such as reusing a water bottle or carpooling somewhere) on the website to earn points and money for a charity connected to your specific campus. The app also shows you how much carbon emissions you are reducing and shares what you are doing with other students. It is an eco-friendly Facebook app that is connected to your actual Facebook, so next time you are taking a break from profile-stalking someone online, you can easily head over to MyActions and see if anything you have done that day or are planning on doing is making a difference for our planet. Check out their website here and get started doing good!

While there are many, many other ways to be green – and I encourage you to find them and do them – this list of tasks includes those that I have deemed easiest for the busy college student, tasks you can do every week or every day and get on the road to being green and helping our planet. We only have one planet and one chance, so let's respect it!