With Earth Day having just passed, and the cherry blossoms around campus in full bloom, it’s the perfect time to think about ways to help keep our planet healthy and beautiful. The fact of the matter is, our planet it sick and it needs our help. I know we’re all super busy, and sometimes it can be hard to think of anything happening outside the walls of Brody, but if we want those beautiful cherry blossoms to keep coming back every year we need to do our part. Here are a couple easy life changes that can help even the sustainability novice.
1. Don’t Be Trashy
You all knew this one was coming. Recycling is the poster child for ways to help the planet. With rainforests being cut down at a rate of about 100 acres per minute, and our planet’s natural resources quickly dwindling, it’s more important than ever to reuse the resources we have. It’s crucial to not only to recycle, but to dispose of all of your trash properly. Besides being important, it’s also super easy. Almost all buildings on the JHU campus have trash cans in clusters of four: one for compost, one for paper and cardboard recyclables, one for plastic and aluminum recyclables, and one for trash that needs to be incinerated. Each sign has specific labels and pictures of what waste can be disposed of there. So, unless you’re blind and illiterate, no excuses on this one guys.
2. Quench Your Thirst
As poor college students, this one should just be common sense. When you use reusable water bottles, not only will the planet thank you, your wallet will too. Plastic water bottles average at about $1 per bottle. Assuming you’re vastly dehydrated and only drink one bottle of water per day, that’s still $365 per year. Why would you spend hundreds of dollars per year on a free resource (a free resource that JHU’s Take Back the Tap has made sure is readily available all over campus)? Furthermore, these plastic bottles are terrible for the environment. And don’t try to tell me that it’s fine because you recycle them. Studies have shown that, last year, the average American used 167 plastic water bottles, but only recycled 38 of them. Similar studies have shown that the energy we waste producing bottled water each year would be enough to power 190,000 homes. So, when you finish reading this article, switch on over to Amazon and buy yourself one of those trendy Nalgene bottles that people are always putting stickers all over.
3. Shop Smarter
Tote bags! I’m trying really hard to make tote bags a thing, and let me tell you why. I love sea turtles, everyone should. The thing about sea turtles is, though, that they really struggle with telling the difference between yummy jellyfish and dangerous plastic grocery bags floating through their ocean home. Plastic bags are the second most common type of ocean refuse as of a 2008 study, and they take, on average, 1000 years to degrade. A great alternative to these turtle-killers are tote bags you bring to the grocery store yourself. And, if saving awesome sea turtles isn’t a big enough incentive for you, tote bags will be way easier on your hands. You know what I’m talking about, plastic bags basically cut off your circulation for the entire walk home from the grocery store. With big tote bags, you’ll need to carry less bags at once, and none of them will threated to amputate one of your digits.
4. Stay Cool (Or Hot)
After we leave the sanctuary that is on-campus housing, where utility bills don’t exist, it can be difficult to adjust to the world of paying for what you use. I can’t count the number of times one of my chilly roommates cranked up our heat to warm up a bit. There is problem with that, however, that we notices when the utility bill arrived. Another problem we didn’t think about was what we were doing to our planet. Powering air conditioners and heaters takes massive amounts of fossil fuels, not only depleting our resources, but also blasting soot and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Instead of immediately turning to your heater when you’re chilly, try layering up, grabbing a blanket, or making some warm tea or coffee. On the same token, on those killer hot days, you don’t always need to blast the A/C. Try wearing shorts and a t-shirt, staying hydrated with cold water, and opening the windows for a nice cross breeze. Smart JHU students are sure to see the logic here.
Give these simple suggestions a try, and we’ll make a sustainability guru out of you in no time. The planet will thank you, your wallet will thank you and (most importantly) the sea turtles will thank you.