The goal of this guide is to take
you on a walk through a typical day of a college student. Along the journey it will provide you with
simple steps you can take to make your own life a little greener so that you
can do your part in helping not only the PLU community, but our planet as well. Some of these you may think are basic or
dumb, and others may surprise you, but please challenge yourself to make a
difference. If each of our students
picked just three things from this list that they don’t already do it could
have a substantial impact on PLU’s ecological footprint.
Beep… Beep…Beep…
It’s right around 7:30 and your alarm screams at you to roll out
of bed. As you begin to stumble groggily
around your room trying not to wake your roommate, you manage to grab your
towel and flip flops for the shower.
People tend to start their day getting ready in the bathroom, which
makes it the perfect place to start living in a more sustainable way.
The Bathroom
Most people don’t realize it, but
the bathroom is one place where you can dramatically reduce your impact on the
earth. Here are just a few of the things
you can do…
Turn
off the water when you are brushing your teeth
Typically
you are supposed to brush your teeth for at least two minutes. Imagine how much water you could save
every day if you turned the water off until you had to spit and rinse. By doing this, each day you could save 14
gallons of water which, trust me, adds up.1
Turn
off the water when you are soaping up your hands
Most
of, if not all of the soap at PLU is foaming hand soap. Foaming hand soap means that you don’t
have to lather up your hands when you go to wash them. Rather than running the water while you
get your hands ready turn it on when you need to rinse them off.
Avoid
Paper Towels
If
possible try and use electronic hand dryers
rather than paper towels that are produced by cutting down trees. If paper towels are the only option try
using less. Often times we don’t
think about how many paper towels we really need and end up grabbing 5 or
6, half of which don’t even see a drop of water.
Take
shorter showers
An
average shower wastes 5-10 gallons of water every minute.2 Rather than spending half of your
morning in the shower see how short you can make them. Try making it a game. If you took a 7 minute shower Monday,
look for ways to cut it down to 6 on Tuesday. A good goal for length of a shower is
around 4 minutes. I know
that seems fast, but I bet you could do it. For an added incentive, think how much
extra time you could be sleeping rather than wasting water in the shower.
Already
take short showers?
It
doesn’t take water to put shampoo or conditioner in your hair or to scrub
yourself with soap. Try turning
off the water in between sudding up.
Not
ready to turn off the water? Try
taking a shower every other day.
You can also consider alternating days of washing your hair which
will cut quite a bit of time off of your shower.
For
your home away from PLU, try to convince your parents to install low flow
shower heads. Low flow shower
heads still produce water power like a normal shower head, but can
save up to 9,500 gallons of water a year! Not only does that dramatically cut
down your consumption of water, but it can save you an average of $185 on
your water and energy bill.3 (some even have a pause
feature to turn off the water in between soap and shampoo… pretty cool
idea) Low flow shower heads sell
anywhere from $12-$100. If you are
interested here is a link to where you can find them: http://www.showerheadstore.com/
Avoid
Baths
It
takes around 25 gallons of water to fill a standard bath tub only half
way.4 If that
doesn’t make you cringe just think about taking a bath… you are basically
soaking in the stuff you are trying to clean off, gross.
Avoid
Damaging Products
Certain
companies like Kimberly-Clark, the manufacturer of Kleenex, Scott,
Cottenelle, and Viva, do not have policies on using recycled
materials. In fact, Kimberly-Clark,
in order to make a softer tissue, is actually destroying one of the last
ancient Boreal forests in the world.
When buying things like paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, etc.
make sure to read labels and look for recycled materials.
Now that you are all clean, your
teeth are sparkling, and you have saved some water, you are ready to start the
day. You head back to your room and
scramble through the closet. Almost
unconsciously you scramble through your piles of outfits in hopes of finding
just the right one for today. Clothing
is and always will be a major part of our lives. Did you know there are things
to do to even make your closet a greener part of your life?
Donate
Old Clothes
Think
about how much space all of you old clothes would take up in our already
over crowded landfills, not to mention how long it would take for most of
it to break down and decompose. By
donating your old clothes, not only are you reducing your waste and your
impact on the earth, but you are helping out someone in need.
Try
purchasing a few used t-shirts.
Some places like Value-Village have some good stuff if you
actually look. Buying used clothes
means they won’t go to the landfills either.
Read
your labels
Look
for clothes made out of organic materials. Organic fibers break down and decompose
easier than other fibers that most clothes are typically made out of. Not only that, but things like cotton
that aren’t grown organically are grown with an immense amount of
chemicals that are released into the air in order to ensure a crop large
enough to produce more clothing.
Look
for clothes that are local.
Buying locally reduces how much energy it takes to transport the
clothes from where they are produced.
Try
to avoid polyester.
Polyester is made with petroleum.
Petroleum is derived from crude oil which must be drilled,
produced, and burnt to release the materials that can be captured to be
transformed into the petroleum.
This very messy process releases a large amount of harmful gases
into the environment helping to promote climate change. 5
Dress
for the season
Say
its winter and your house is pretty cold.
By dressing warmer you can keep the thermostat down. By not raising the temperature you are
using a lot less heat. An extra
sweatshirt or pair of socks is way better than wasting all that energy.
Only
do laundry when you have to
Make
sure that you wait until you have a full load of clothes. Rather than wasting a whole load of
laundry on a few pieces of clothes, try and save some water by waiting
until you have more to do.
Re-wear
clothes. Wearing a t-shirt
to class and back doesn’t mean it’s dirty. Try to wear your clothes a few times
before you throw them in the laundry if they aren’t really in need of a
wash.
Wash
your clothes with cold water.
It takes a lot of energy to heat water for the washing
machine. Try and conserve a little
by using the cold water setting on the washer.
Try
to dry your clothes on a clothes rack or on hangers rather
than using the dryer. I know it’s
hard to do in the dorms, but think about all the energy you could save if
you weren’t running the dryer.
Now that you’re all dressed up and
sprinting out the door to make it to class on time, you gather up you’re
homework and throw it all into your back pack.
There are tons of ways to green up your dorm/school life but let’s start
with the school work.
Print
Less
Think
about bringing your laptop to class if you have to print off a
reading assignment.
Print
papers double sided. Check
with your professor first to make sure they don’t mind, but why would
they say no to helping the environment?
Do
revisions on your computer if you can rather than printing it out on
paper you won’t be turning in.
Turn
off your laptop
Just
because you aren’t using your computer doesn’t mean it isn’t using
energy. When you head to class, go
to practice, and especially when you go to bed try and make
sure that you turn your computer off. Don’t stop at the computer either. There are probably a few more
appliances around your room that are quietly sucking up energy. Video games, hair dryers, even cell
phone chargers require quite a bit of energy. If you aren’t using it just unplug it
or turn it off.
Use
Energy efficient light bulbs
CFLs
(compact fluorescent light bulbs) use 75% less energy than
standard incandescent light bulbs.
Not only that, but they save you $30 dollars in electricity over
their life time and pay for themselves after just 6 months of using
them. Imagine your savings if you
replaced all of your bulbs with CFLs.
If you want to make it happen check out: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls
Already
have CFls? Try using
natural day light more than indoor lighting. Open your blinds and windows. Daylight is a great way to reduce your
energy bill, and it’s also a great way to get the vitamin D that you’re
supposed to be taking in each day.
Recycle
old appliances
Appliances
tend to be big and bulky, and when we’re done with them or they aren’t
working right any more, most people send them to the dump. What most don’t know is that most of
our daily appliances can almost be completely recycled and either made
into new products, or fixed and given to someone in need. For example, 94% of an old refrigerator
can be broken down and reused.
Imagine how much space we could save at the landfill without all
of those old appliances piling up.
If
you have old appliances that you could recycle Tacoma Power has a
recycling service for our area.
You can find them at: http://www.mytpu.org/
Now you’re running late for class
and think about how you are going to get there.
Your every day commute is one of the best ways to make a
difference.
Ride
your bike
Riding
a bike over driving isn’t just better for your health. Behind meat, the transportation
industry is the second largest contributor to America’s
green house gas production.6
The U.S. alone is responsible for 25% of the world’s carbon
emissions, a number that we need to reduce. A six mile car ride creates around 5
pounds of pollution. By riding
your bike you are taking one more carbon emitting car off the road. 7
Ride
the Bus or Carpool
If
you can’t get to your destination on a bike, public transportation or
carpooling means fewer cars on the road. Find a friend that is going the same
direction and bring them with you, or both of you could hop on the
bus. The bus may take a minute or
two longer, but it means you aren’t busy driving. Bring a book, some tunes, or even
homework and get something done on the way.
Sound
Transit is the community transit provider for our area. Check out their trip planner to get to
where you need to go: http://www.soundtransit.org/
Class was pretty good, but after
all that learning you’re pretty hungry.
Off to the grocery store to grab some stuff to eat. Even you’re grocery shopping can get green
with a little work. Take a look at some
of these ideas
Use
reusable grocery bags
California
alone distributes 180 million plastic grocery bags.8 The vast majority of our the plastic
bags that Americans use end up in our over flowing landfills. Some make their way into the ocean
where they are beginning to accumulate to form islands of floating
garbage, and only a few get reused as something else.
Can’t
remember your bags? Try leaving
two in your car so you will always have them.
You
can buy reusable grocery bags at any grocery store for about $1.
Buy
less packaging and more food
Most
foods come in a box, then in plastic, then in another wrapper, and on and
on. Look for foods without all the
packaging that would normally be tossed into the garbage.
A
good way to do that is buy in bulk. Buying in bulk means more food and less
packaging. It also tends to save
you quite a bit on your grocery bill.
As
much as possible try to avoid plastic bottles
which also tend to make their way to the landfill.
Buy
local food
Like
clothing, food tends to travel a really long way before it makes it to
your plate. It takes a lot of fuel
to get food from one country to another or even just from one side of the
U.S. to
the other. Purchasing local food
helps the planet and supports local agriculture
CSA
or community supported agriculture is an awesome way to purchase
local food. CSAs are local farms
that you buy stake into. You pay a
certain amount a month, and then you get to go to the farm and pick a box
full of whatever kind of produce they have at the time.
We
are very lucky to have a CSA very close to us. If joining a CSA is something that you
would like to look into check out: http://www.terrysberries.com/
Rather
than buying a coffee with a cup bring a mug. It saves another cardboard cup from
being thrown out.
Use
your Take Back the Tap water bottle rather than buying plastic water
bottles. If water is too boring
for you try adding flavor over purchasing pop or gaterade that comes in
plastic.
With
our Take Back the Tap efforts alone, PLU managed to reduce our sales of
plastic water bottles on campus by 35% on 1 liter bottles and 22.4% for
20 oz bottles. Keep up the good
work.
Grow
a small garden
How
much more local can you get than your front yard? On top of the pleasure you get from
putting work into your own food, gardens are a perfect for living
sustainably.
Interested
in gardening but don’t really know where to start? Check out PLU’s
community garden. They
have work parties every Sunday from 12-3
p.m. or you can see more here: http://www.plu.edu/~garden/
Eat
less red meat
The
U.S. beef
industry is now considered America’s
largest contributor to our CO2 emissions. If you thought driving your car was bad
look into the beef industry.
Not
only that, but it takes ten pounds of grain to
produce one pound of beef.
If an average cow weighs around 1,300 pounds it would take over
13,000 pounds of grain to raise it.
Imagine how many other things you could make, from cereal to bread
with all of that grain which people aren’t even consuming.
In
fact, if America
reduced its factory farmed meat consumption by 1/5, it would be the same
effect on global warming as every American instantly swapping their cars
for Priuses.
You get your food home and figure
out what you want to eat. As you prepare
your meal you start to notice that between the stuff you just bought and how
you are cooking it there is a bit of waste starting to pile up. Another place to reduce your impact on the
earth is your garbage. Seems pretty
obvious, but it may not be that easy.
Give these ideas a try and see if it makes a difference.
Recycle
as much as possible
Sometimes
we don’t even realize that the things we are throwing out are actually
recyclable. Make sure to check
labels to see if you can recycle.
Reuse
things. Things like yogurt
containers make great tupper ware that can be reused multiple times
before it ever has to go to the recycle bin. Think about washing out plastic baggies
and trying to use them more than once.
Or try not using plastic bags at all. Tupper ware comes in all shapes and
sizes. Get creative and reuse as
much as you can.
Parkland
does not have a glass recycling service.
I know this is outrageous to a lot of our students. We are in the process of establishing a
student run glass recycling program for off campus students
which we hope will be up and running early this coming school year.
If
you are interested in the glass recycling program or would like to get
involved please email me at: ratzkead@gmail.com
Until
then, LeMay will recycle glass if you are willing
to drive it to them. If recycling
glass is something worth driving to LeMay you can
get directions here: http://www.lemayinc.com/
Compost
We’re
told to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. When you think about it, the amount of
waste produced from food really begins to add up. Banana peels, apple cores, orange
peels, any organic material will break down and decompose. Why put it in a landfill when we could
put it back into the earth.
Even better, compost is perfect for creating a small garden or
just a nice looking yard.
If
you live on campus look for the green compost bins spread through out
campus. You don’t need to have a
house to reduce your waste.
If
you are interested in building a compost bin check out the one at PLU’s
community garden for ideas.
Fun
fact: The city of San
Francisco diverts 72% of it’s waste from going
into landfills, and by 2020 they will put not one ounce of waste into
landfills. If an entire city can
divert their waste composting and recycling should be easy for a school
like PLU.9
Now that you have eaten and you’re
ready for a nap, you decide to do your dishes before you crash so you won’t
have to do them later. Doing dishes
means consuming water, and as we have seen with the sink and the shower, there
are tons of things you can do to make sure you aren’t guilty of pouring way too
much of it down the sink.
·Only wash full loads
oLike
the washing machine, an average dishwasher uses a ton of water to do it’s
duty. In fact, typically, one
load in the dishwasher uses 15 gallons of water.10 Rather than using all that water for 8 or 9
dishes wait until there isn’t any room left in your washer to run a load.
oAlready
run full loads? Try and see how well you
can organize your dishes in the machine.
I bet you could get a few more in there.
·Fill the sink don’t run the water
oIf
you don’t have a dishwasher, rather than letting the water run while you do the
dishes fill up one side of your sink and do them that way. One sink full of water is substantially less
than if you let the sink run for the ten minutes it takes to clean up after
dinner.
·Consider a sink aerator
oA
sink aerator is just like a low flow shower head but for your sinks. By installing a sink aerator you can cut
your water consumption by up to half.
To purchase a sink aerator look at: http://www.showerheadstore.com/
·Fix all leaks
oA
faucet leaking a slow steady drip - 100 drops per minute - wastes 350 gallons
per month. A faucet leaking a small stream wastes 2,000 to 2,700 gallons
of water per month.11
I challenge you to measure your footprint right now, pick
out three of these ideas and dedicate yourself to making a difference. Measure your footprint again at the end of
each semester to see how much your impact on the earth has been reduced.
Think you are ready?
If you are ready to make a
difference try taking a look at PLU’s live GREEN pledge. Like I said before, if all of us commits to
doing just three of these easy sustainable living ideas PLU could really take a
huge leap in the right direction towards saving and protecting our planet.
