When I first stepped onto the campus of my school, I realized I was kind of out of my league. People at universities can sometimes come off as complete activists and sometimes it doesn’t even seem to matter what they’re protesting or what they’re supporting as long as they’re protesting and supporting something. But one thing that is always being promoted at my school (and I do hope your school as well) is to be environmentally friendly, so here’s a list of ways you can help the environment too.
- Take public transit. If your school offers a transit plan for students, you should take advantage of it. Parking at school is generally very expensive and fuel prices are constantly rising so it may be good idea to consider taking public transit or even living closer to school or on campus so you can walk or bike everywhere.
- Have a reusable cloth shopping bag in your school bag. You never know when you’re going to have to duck into the bookstore to buy another book because your professor was silly (or stupid) enough to forget to include it on the booklist. And with your reusable bag, you can politely decline when the cashier offers you a plastic bag. Plus, cloth bags are more durable and more reusable than plastic bags are.
- Use a reusable water bottle. It’s cheaper in the long run to use a reusable bottle and to refill it than to buy bottled water. Nowadays, there’s a lot of debate regarding the safety of certain types of plastic that are used for water bottles. You can get around this by getting a stainless steel bottle instead. It is a bit more expensive than a plastic water bottle is, but it should last longer.
- Buy locally grown fruits and vegetables. For the most part, locally grown fruits and vegetables are cheaper than imported fruits (for example: Would I, seeing as I live in BC, buy blueberries grown in British Columbia or blueberries grown in California?). The cost goes down depending on where the food comes from. If the food comes from a closer source, there will be less mark-up due to fuel costs to transport the food to the market. You could even consider growing your own food in pots or in a yard.
- Recycle things whenever you get the chance. When recycled, paper generally goes to be made into paper for newspapers. Plastic bottles from your pop or juice (or bottled water…) can go towards being reformed into new plastic bottles or recycled plastic garbage bags.