Whether you’re moving away to college for the first time or you’re going back for another semester, you’ll want to make sure you remember to bring your good environmental habits from home to campus. Greener campus living may take some research and a bit of ingenuity so we’ve devised these tips to help you navigate.
11 Ideas for Greener Campus Living
- Pack your stuff for the move to school in reusable totes that you can send back home or put in storage.
- Familiarize yourself with the recycling rules on campus and the specific rules for your dorm or apartment building.
- Remember to recycle old textbooks, moving boxes, paper handouts along with soda and beer cans.
- If you’re dorm or apartment doesn’t have a recycling program in place, find out how you can help start one.
- Always buy used textbooks, they’re cheaper, too.
- Dispose of unwanted items through sites such as Freecycle or Craigslist or take them to a local secondhand or thrift store.
- While you’re at the thrift store, buy inexpensive sets of dishes, glassware and cutlery. This way, you won’t contribute a semester’s worth of paper, plastic and Styrofoam waste to the landfill.
- Skip the straw whenever you dine out or in the school cafeteria. Encourage the restaurants you patronize to switch to paper straws.
- Switch to reusable mugs for morning coffee or hydration throughout the day. Most paper and plastic coffee and drink cups are not recyclable.
- For trips to the store, bring reusable tote bags and refuse to use plastic bags.
- Lead by example. Keep a clearly-marked recycling bin next to the trash can in your dorm room or apartment.
You’ll find that by doing a few simple actions toward greener campus living, you can make a huge difference by greatly reducing the amount of waste you send to the landfill.
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