For most college students, their main focus is attending lectures, studying for exams, and socializing. This means not many college students think about living green.
However, green living should be something every student attempt to adopt because it’s our responsibility as the human race to take care of the environment. Besides, going green is easier than many anticipate because you just need to make a few changes in how you operate.
Being an eco-friendly student influences your friends to follow suit, and soon enough, every student you interact with will want to make efforts towards environmental conservation. An eco-friendly lifestyle can be someone every student aspires to adopt if more people understood the impact their actions have on the environment.
Reducing your carbon footprint makes you less guilty for all the harm humans cause to the planet earth. And the best part is, most eco-friendly practices actually double up as money-saving tricks. If you’re surviving on a shoestring budget, you might want to seriously consider going green.
So, take a read through the following tips by Dissertation Team that will help you be more eco-friendly in your college life.
Walk, Bike Or Use Public Transport
It is common knowledge that emissions from car exhaust significantly contribute to air pollution. So, if you already own a car, consider leaving it home and using public transport instead. Since public vehicles will be on the road anyway, boarding one is acceptable for anyone trying to go green.
You can also purchase a bicycle and use it as a means of transport to and from campus. Since bicycles use momentum to move, they don’t cause any harm to the environment. Besides, cycling is an excellent cardio workout for anyone who wants to lose weight or just keep fit.
Another suitable alternative is walking to school instead of using any mode of transport. Walking gives you the opportunity to be by yourself for a while and interact with nature at the same time. This can be your way of clearing your mind at the beginning of the day and in the evening.
Buy Green Products
Most of the day-to-day products we purchase end up as non-biodegradable waste at a landfill somewhere. Others are disposed of wrongly, and they end up in water bodies where they compromise the livelihood of aquatic animals.
Start by purchasing products packaged in containers you can reuse, recycle or safely dispose of. For instance, choose paper packages over plastic packaging because the paper is biodegradable and plastic is not.
Ensure that before you choose to be a company’s customer, you find out if they’re eco-friendly or not. Boycotting companies that don’t contribute to environmental conservation goes a long way in ensuring you live green.
Wash Cups And Plates
Washing dishes is probably the last thing you want to worry about on top of your overwhelming academic workload. But washing your cups and plates is among the simplest, yet most effective ways to adopt a green lifestyle.
How come? You may ask. Well, disposing of paper plates increases your carbon footprint because regardless of how this waste is taken care of, it will contribute to environmental pollution. Instead of buying paper plates in bulk to avoid doing the dishes, why not invest in beautiful cups and plates that you will be encouraged to maintain.
Paper plates and disposable plastic cups might be convenient but they greatly contribute to pollution. Besides, they also cost you a lot of money because you have to keep buying them. If you stock your apartment with fine glassware, you won’t have to worry about running out of disposable plastic cups and paper plates to use.
Save Paper
While the paper is biodegradable, you have to remember that trees have to be cut to manufacture them. So, unless it’s absolutely necessary, avoid stocking up notebooks that you never use. Instead of physical notebooks, consider downloading a note-taking app on your smartphone. Apps are more convenient than physical notebooks because you take them with you everywhere you go.
Conclusion
As you can see, going easy is not as difficult as we’ve been made to believe. It only takes small adjustments to ensure you’re showing the environment love. Remember to influence your friends to go green too.
More o this topic:
Reuse and Recycle: How a Student Can Become Environmentally Responsible