Environmental friendly tips for College students

A few weeks ago I was sitting in one our of the residences halls laundry room.  I was listening in on two girls conversation as they were starting to dry their clothes.  The one girl was filling up nearly 5 dryers with only a few items of clothes in each machine.  Her friend gave her a funny look while she was doing this and asked “Why don’t you combine your clothes into fewer dryers?”, and the other looked back and responded with “My clothes look better this way, and I don’t really care about the environment”.  All too often I notice that college students don’t really seem to care about the environment, and I believe this needs to change.  I have made a list of ways college students can easily change their bad habits, and in doing so help save the environment and save a little money in the process. 

1.     Laundry – Does anyone actually know the difference between a Hot-Hot cycle vs. warm-warm cycle vs. a cold-cold??? I know for myself I assumed there wasn’t much of a difference.  When doing your wash set the washer to either warm-cold or cold-cold.  We could save the energy comparable to 100,000 barrels of oil a day by just making that simple adjustment.  I know for myself drying my dress-shirts in a dryer helps keep the wrinkles out, but my jeans (which take longer to dry anyway) do not need to be in a dryer.  Instead hand-dry them on your bedroom door or a hanger.  Not only will you save money you’re helping the environment. 

2.     Used one less paper napkin- during an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.

3.     No more baths! - Have a no-bath week, and take showers instead. Baths require almost twice as much water. Not only will you reduce water consumption, but the energy costs associated with heating the water.

4.     Recycle old phones - The average cell phone lasts around 18 months, which means 130 million phones will be retired each year. If they go into landfills, the phones and their batteries introduce toxic substances into our environment. There are plenty of reputable programs where you can recycle your phone, many which benefit noble causes.

5.     Go to a Car Wash instead of washing the car yourself- Although we have that image of hot summer day in our swim suits washing our cars, professional car washes are often more efficient with water consumption. If everyone in the U.S. who washes their car themselves took just one visit to the car wash we could save nearly 8.7 billion gallons of water.

6.     6. Stop paper bank statements- In our day and age I would say most banking can be done online, that includes receiving bank statements via email.  Not only are you going to help the environment but also you won’t have to deal with piles of paper that you probably won’t read anyway. 

7.     Show off your Winona State University pride and invest in a WSU water bottle.  By refilling a water bottle several times a day instead of buying packs of bottled water, it is a great way to save money and helps keep plastic bottles out of landfills.