As young people living in a compromised environment, we must take up the cause to protect our planet. Serious efforts must be made to try and avert climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project based in London, “there are 100 corporations responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions.” This statistic headlines many articles and is a harrowing, hopeless fact. Or is it? As consumers, we CAN make a difference. Our conscious decision to support corporations affects our individual carbon footprints. Don’t doubt your ability to make a difference because when we all make conscious choices, humanity can make vast changes. Catalyzing action toward a sustainable world is as much the consumers’ decision as it is the companies we choose to support.
Now I do understand that as college students during a pandemic it is difficult to avoid the common support our society has in place: single-use items. Even I’m guilty of prioritizing pre-packaged goods over sustainable ones, but if you make a strategic endeavor to reduce your need for single-use plastics, you’re already one step ahead. Here are a few tips I’ve come up with to help reduce your carbon footprint.
If you know you have an item that is recyclable, wash it and recycle it, but take care! Much of our waste is improperly cleaned and therefore it must be thrown away. Washing your recyclables so they contain no food particles is a great way to reduce your waste. Additionally, sort to the best of your abilities, and explore what programs your city offers to dispose of hazardous waste so you can stop throwing toxic items in the garbage.
Seek out a reusable coffee cup to help reduce the billions of non-recyclable coffee cups thrown out each year. Buy a reusable water bottle: a Nalgene is one of the best investments I’ve made. Bonus points if you can buy it used—they’re way cheaper. Bring reusable bags instead of buying plastic bags at the store. Five cents every trip could add up to the cost of a beer by the end of the semester—cheers to that! Reusable food bags for fresh items at the grocery store will also reduce unnecessary plastic use. Opt for a little more peeling and prep work and buy whole veggies rather than pre-packaged ones at the store. Reuse your old pasta sauce jars! They are great for storage or drinking cups, and buying sturdier items will reduce breakdown and waste issues in the long run. A bidet attachment for your toilet—available for cheap on Amazon—will save a lot of toilet paper (and your tush will thank you). Switching out rags for paper towels makes a difference too.
Try purchasing second-hand clothing! This will help reduce the demand for fast fashion and the highly polluting textile industry. There are both human and environmental costs to every item we purchase. It takes an astounding amount of toxic chemicals and over three hundred liters of water to produce one new pair of jeans. This toxic wastewater greatly affects the health and environment of people living in the countries where our clothing is produced. The thrift stores you choose to support also have an impact on whether or not your money is reallocated into community supports or into another billionaires pocket, so be conscious of where you shop! Kijiji and Facebook marketplace are great options too! If anything, try and support ethical companies based in your home country in order to avoid unethical and polluting businesses.
I’ve been a vegetarian for six years now, and it is a change that I am thankful to have made every day. I was your typical meat fiend, but it was surprisingly easy to give up. There are plenty of environmental and personal health benefits to going vegetarian. According to the Vegetarian Society, “eating a veggie diet necessitates 2.5 x fewer carbon emissions than a meat-based diet.” By simply eating one vegetarian meal a week in place of meat, you can slowly begin to shift your carbon footprint.
Do what you can to make a difference. We hold more power as individual members of a larger group, and if we can shift the paradigm we can change the world.