Earth Day has come and gone but we should hold on to its principles! We can continue to make a conscious effort to follow the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle. Our campus has already made improvements in how we manage waste by banishing paper straws and making reusable food containers available to students. Even if the opportunities to be more green exist, it’s still up to each of us to take advantage of them. Earth is our home and we want to treat it with respect! But what’s doable in the busy life of a UP student? Here are a few ideas that are relatively easy to put into practice:
1) Invest in a green food container from the Commons or Pilot House
These are easy to get, especially if you have meal points! They aren’t too big or bulky to carry around and just think of all the cardboard you’re saving! When you’re done eating your meal, all you have to do is trade it in and you’ll get a purple carabiner to keep with you for the next time you need food to-go. UP has saved a lot of cardboard from being thrown away in the trash since they’ve started using these green containers.
2) Think about how much food you’re really hungry for before you buy it
Only buy the amount of food that you’re actually going to eat. If you’re unsure how much you’ll end up eating, get your meal in a green to-go container instead of on a plate or in a bowl. That way, whatever food you don’t eat you can take back to your room to put in your fridge to finish another time. Sure, we have the compost bins in the Commons and the Pilot House but it would be so much better if we could plan a little ahead and not let all that edible food go uneaten. You’re going to be hungry again later, so you might as well save your food for the next time you need it!
3) Pick up trash you see around campus
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a receipt from one of our food services laying on the ground outside. Little items like that get swept around by the wind and never make their way into the garbage where they belong. It is no trouble at all when you see a piece of trash to reach down and pick up it up to throw away in the nearest trash can. We have trash cans all over campus! If the item you see is made of paper, glass, or plastic, you can also find a nearby recycling bin.
4) Take shorter showers
I know the warm water feels good. Especially when we get our long rainy days! However, a five-minute shower (or less) really is sufficient for warming you back up and getting you clean. Water is so precious and it’s crazy to think of how much goes down the drain when we lounge around in the shower.
These are just a few tips on how to live a greener life here at UP. There are many more ways that you can be friendly to our earth! Any little task you do makes a difference. We need to treat every day as if it’s Earth Day. Since this planet is the only home we have we should treat it with respect. We want Earth to flourish for years to come!