Start Turning Green in College

By Melinda Toussaint

When you’re going off to college everyone around you tells you secrets for success- study hard, meet new people, be open to your roommate, and of course the cliché that these are the best days of your life. However, they have missed one crucial thing. Try to make a difference. You say that’s easier said than done right; well maybe it’s easier than you think. A great way to make a difference is by living green.

College is a time to try new things, learn all you can, and to absorb experiences that will help you later on in life. But it is also the time to take a stand and to help others give a voice to their generation. Well this generation should give a voice to the environment. A strong call that says “Protect me!”

As a college student you obviously won’t have the money to buy a hybrid or energy saving appliances, it’s hard enough saving money for laundry, but what you can do is daily energy savers that cost no money at all, in fact if practiced enough will save you money.

If you are a student living in the dorms you may not have control over much of your living quarters. But you have to chance to make a difference in a big way. No matter what college you attend they will all have one thing in common: they are filled with bulletin boards of wasted paper. Nine out of ten students do not read anything on those boards, maybe a few glances at them while waiting for the elevator, but that’s it. This is your chance to sit down with the head of your dormitory and suggest a dorm website run by who else… the students, maybe even you. There you could post important information about upcoming events or anything else exciting going on in the dorm or on campus. That way you can save all that wasted paper and give the students a chance to learn about the events in the privacy of their own room or at the library.

Another thing you can do is recycle! You have heard it your whole life but still many Americans still do not recycle. If your dorm has a recycling dumpster or bin, use it! In fact, go one step further and recycle for your whole floor! When I was a sophomore in college, my friends and I started getting a cart from the front desk and taking out the garbage for the floor. We would take turns every day or week. This way if you can’t influence your friends to recycle on their own, you can make sure the waste is going to the right places. Now you will be recycling for nearly 50 students. This is a great way for you to meet everyone on your floor and do something nice for him or her while saving the environment.

However, if taking big steps in the way of living green is not exactly for you, there are many small things you can do alone to insure a better environment:
-Start taking shorter showers. According to The Green Book by Elizabeth Rodgers and Thomas M. Kostigen, “Every two minutes you save on your shower can conserve more than ten gallons of water.” There are approximately 11 million college students, imagine how many gallons would be saved daily if we all did that.
-You can also use a water filter instead of buying bottled water. You can save money, water, and let’s face it much needed fridge space.
-Also make sure your microwave is clean, when it is it used less energy and less time to prepare your food.
-You can make sure you turn off the lights when you leave and turn off your appliances or electronics when they aren’t in use. Leaving your computer on while you are at class or leaving your cell phone charger plugged in uses nearly ten percent of your total electricity.

And these are just a couple of the things you can do as a student. The Green Book talks more about the simple steps you can do in every aspect of your life. Every student has the power to live greener and potentially help others live greener too. If you learn how to live green as a student, it will be much easier to be green as an adult.

“If we all begin to learn from one another and share some of the things we do, we just might be able to affect the world for the better through these little rituals.” –Jennifer Aniston