4 easy things you can personally do that are cost-effective and will lead to a greener life.
Go Thrifting:
The easiest and most fun way to be more sustainable during your 4 years in college is to find all your going-out tops, formal dresses, and everyday outfits at thrift stores instead of supporting fast fashion. According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, a United Nations Environment Programme partner, “has estimated that a truckload of abandoned textiles is dumped in landfill or incinerated every second.” As our landfills are overflowing with clothing only worn once or twice, the plastic fibers in the clothing are “polluting the oceans, the wastewater, toxic dyes, and the exploitation of underpaid workers” (UNEP). If you can buy used, you’re not just being cost effective, you’re saving wildlife in oceans, people from harsh working conditions, and communities from toxic air.
Thrifting doesn’t have to stop at clothing. According to the NYT, 12 billion tons of furniture go into landfills every year. When furnishing your apartments, opt for a couch from Facebook Marketplace. Not only will you be helping to reduce that number, but you’re also saving your bank account.
Go to the Refill Store for Your Dry Goods:
At the Integral Yoga Natural Foods, you can bring your own reusable containers and fill up on your granola, nut butters, honey, dried fruits, and more. Buying this way reduces the amount of packaging you are disposing of while also costing 10% less on average. Another bonus is that they give 10% off to students who bring their student ID!
Bring your reusable containers in a reusable bag (I know you have a tote bag) so you can put the rest of your groceries in them to take home. You won’t have to pay the 10-25 cents, and you will be doing your part to avoid contributing to the 5 trillion plastic bags the world uses each year, according to The World Counts.
Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products:
You don’t need harsh chemicals to clean even the dirtiest of college bathrooms. Vinegar, made from acetic acid, is a natural disinfectant that destroys bacteria and dissolves filth, grease, grime, and mineral deposits like limescale. The BBC’s Science Focus says that the phosphates in cleaning products are “triggering the widespread growth of algae that saps away the water’s oxygen.” For only a couple of dollars, vinegar, when distilled with water, can lead to a clean home with no chemicals that will end up in waterways and kill biodiversity.
Use Ecosia Instead of Google:
Ecosia is a search engine that plants a tree every time you search for something (I’m using it to write this article right now). They have already planted 248,342,580 trees, financed 1,705,672 in January, and raised $1,982,429.87 dedicated to climate action. You can link all of your saved bookmarks from Google right into Ecosia with a few clicks, it won’t cost you anything, and you’ll be shifting your everyday practices into a more sustainable way of life.
These small changes to your everyday life wont cost you anything, but if we disregard sustainable practices, it will cost us our home.
All nature is doing her best each moment to make us well—she exists for no other end.
Henry David Thoreau, July 1853 Journal
Why not use your existence to give back and make her well?