An eco-friendly to-do list for students

Let’s face it, one of the primary focuses of being a student is to become a better version of yourself and make a difference in the world.

At University you can easily find classes and clubs focused on different social issues, where you can constantly learn how to face these issues and what students can do to help.

Well, the easiest and most popular way to help and make a difference is to care for the environment and preserving our resources.

Emagister offers you a little eco-friendly to-do list for students who want to contribute to preserving planet Earth:

Recycle more

Let’s start with the obvious one!

The best course of action is to produce less waste. It takes a fraction of the production energy to recycle metal, glass and paper into new products.

Recycling is such a simple thing to do! Instead of throwing recyclables in the trash with your non-recyclables, you can look for recycling cans nearby. If there aren’t any, ask to locate them around your campus.

Produce less waste

You can bring your own cup to the café when you are not staying in, take your own bag to the supermarket and get a water bottle you can refill.

By reuse shopping bags, dispose of battery responsibly and avoid unnecessary packaging, we can help a lot.

It takes a while for plastic grocery-type bags to decompose.

Try to shop smart. Whether you are shopping for books, food or clothes, try to use a reusable bag. For instance, you can take your own to the supermarket and these bags are useful for things other than shopping as well.

If you cannot avoid using plastic bags, do not be so quick to throw them out and try to reuse them the next time you go shopping.

In addition, consider buying a reusable water bottle and a coffee flask instead of buying individually-packaged drinks.

Many campuses offer water fountains designed for drinking as well as for refilling reusable water bottles and a lot of coffee shops offer discounts to customers who use reusable containers. This way, you will actually help the environment while saving money!

Save trees

Using too much paper is detrimental to the environment. Try to print as little as necessary. Bring a laptop or a tablet to class to take notes and download the reading you need. And if you can’t avoid to print, try to reduce the amount of paper by printing on both sides of the page.

And don’t throw your notes away when you don’t need them anymore, try to pass them to students in a future class instead. At the very least, if you can’t find anyone to give the notes to, recycle the paper you used.

If you want to do a step further, you could also help by planting flowers and new threes! This will also help to save bees that, as you might have heard, are going extinct thanks to insecticides and parasites.

Save electricity

Keep in mind to turn off lights, laptops and other appliances when you are not using them and lower your air conditioning or heat when it’s not necessary.

Save water

Try to not waste water by changing old habits to help the environment and your wallet:

Turn off the tap as you are brushing your teeth
Take shorter showers and use eco-friendly detergents
Limit your water usage as you wash dishes

Ride the bicycle or use public transportation

When possible, take public transportation, ride a bike to class or go by walk.

These options will help the environment as well as helping you to get some exercise and save money at the same time!

 

As you can see, there are so many things that you can do at the university to help limit damage to the environment. Hang this list on the fridge and try to keep it always in mind. Do not forget: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!

 Sustainability, university students, University, Environment