Being a Green Student Pt 1

Some tips and tricks to help us do our bit to cool down the planet and save some polar bears...

1. Find about about your Uni/halls of residence/local council's recycling policy and stick to it. Although rummaging through your own bins to separate paper from plastic isn't all that glamorous, I'm sure most would agree it is worth the life of a polar bear...
2. Switch off your plug sockets, lights and all electricity outlets before leaving your room in the morning or evening.
3. Print on both sides of the paper. If possible, print your readings two pages per page, i.e shrink 2 A4 pages for them to fit on 1 A4 landscape printout. Easily done, lighter to carry and SO much better for the trees!
4. Recycle your notes and required readings. If you used a bunch of texts for an assignment that you don't need any more, ask around the people doing the same course as you if anyone else would need them for any other assignment. In some cases, if a certain class has prescribed a long list of readings, share them out amongst a group of friends, each reading one or two of the set readings, and then organise a report-back study session where you each present what you learned from your delegated reading, thus saving time, paper and energy.
5. Buy second hand. Amazon and Ebay are excellent. The most I ever paid for any of my course books was £3.40. Cheap and environmentally friendly AND if you keep the book in good quality you can always resell it for a profit, so lucrative as well!
6. Buy Organic. and local for that matter. It generally isn't all that much more expensive, its better for you and the environment, and usually has less packaging.
7. Turn the heating down and put on an extra layer of clothing.
8. Buy one bottle of water a week and fill it up with tap water daily to carry with you. Or better yet, buy a sports bottle or thermos type water holder that will last the legnth of your career and save you £1 a day on bottle water.
9. Use scrap paper. The backs of unsuccessful printouts work fine for your own personal brainstorms and notes. Think pre-recycling recycling.
10. Walk, skip, jog, sprint, bike, skate, rollerblade, unicycle or at least, use public transport to get to uni or out and about. A 10-20 minute brisk walk to campus and back home would qualify as your daily excercise fix, and is good for the polar bears. If this is impossible then support public services by using public transport reducing 20 vehicle's carbon emissions to 1.
11. Buy from charity shops or arrange a clothes swap with some friends. Preloved and preowned clothes do little damage to the environment and a lot of good to the purse strings.
12. Always do a full load of laundry. Unless its ABSOLUTELY necessary, wash on a cold wash, and use eco-friendly washing powder and softener, which are usually cheaper than the more plush brands on the supermarket shelves! Invest in a clothes horse to airdry your clothes as tumble dryers waste ridiculous amounts of energy and often shrink or cover your clothes in other people's lint! If you don't have a full load, consider doing a group load with a friend whose personal hygiene you trust!
13. Carry your own shopping bags when you pop to the supermarket or highstreet. If you do use store plastic bags, be sure to reuse them as dustbin liners or next time you go shopping.
14. Use ring folders or plastic wallets rather than notebooks. Notebooks often tend to go unused come the middle of the binding, meaning some poor tree died for only half a notebook's worth of use.
15. Use online resources and soft copies as much as possible. avoid printing, scanning or photocopying and if necessary live by your own designed notes made about said resource.

That be all for this post...part II to follow shortly :D