Our environment is quickly deteriorating, and Earth Day is more important than ever! It is important to be green every day, although here are some ideas to step up your green game this Apr. 22 in your busy college life:
Challenge yourself to walk or use a bike for transportation. If not available, take public transit! Eliminate your carbon footprint by consciously reducing the pollution that you are spewing into the atmosphere. Skip your car today, save yourself a few bucks in gas and give mother nature a little breather and bike on!
Avoid bottled water: According to banthebottle.net, approximately 38 billion plastic empty bottles are not recycled yearly, meaning this plastic is being wasted and is piling in our landfills. Filtered tap water can be just as clean, with little to no environmental damage if not wasted.
Turn off those lights: Simply turning off your lights when not in a room saves more energy than anticipated. Your electricity bills will slightly shrink and you won’t be hogging as much electricity as the average american does.
Unplug extra objects when not in use: When you aren’t using that charger in the wall, unplug it! As you keep these items plugged in 24 hours a day, you are actually wasting electricity.According to bchydro.com, standby power from unused objects account for 10 percent of a household’s annual electricity usage!
Buy a recycling bin: This is an obvious one, but you’d be surprised with how many college students don’t recycle! Even easier, use a brown paper bag from a convenient store. Then you are reusing the bag AND recycling all of those products that you used to ignore that are piling up in our landfill!
Go pick up trash: one hour of picking up trash in an area where you know needs it can make a huge impact. Not only does it make the area look nicer, but you are also showing other people that yes, people actually do this! Not just for community service hours, but that normal everyday people can indeed go out and pick up trash for no compensation whatsoever. Grab some rubber gloves and a garbage bag and get going!
Limit your shower time: showers use substantially less water than baths, and limiting your shower time can make a large difference in your water usage!
College students can be green too. Make a conscious effort this Earth Day, or any day for that matter, to reduce your carbon footprint and slow down the destruction of our earth!