The Three R's

          I have a confession to make. To be completely honest, before I came to college, protecting the environment and waste management were not things that I thought about often. Now that I am taking on the challenge of going green, I really want to know how waste affects the environment. After doing some research, I have found out that every person on average generates 400 to 500 grams of waste per day! There are about 313,375,029 people in the United States today. You can do that math, but that is a lot of trash! As you have found out from my blog mates previous entries, most of our trash ends up in a landfill or becoming a nasty floating island of trash. These improper waste disposal methods can cause air and soil contamination and affect animals and marine life.

           

        After a year of college dorm life, I have come to realize that dorm rooms are notorious for accumulating tons of trash. I have walked into many a room to see leftover food containers, half eaten bags of chips and cookies, candy wrappers, soda cans and much more. So how can we cut down on the waste? The answer is The Tree R’s: Reduce, Reuse, And Recycle.

Reduce:

•          Post-it note or scrap paper piles by writing reminders on a wipe board
•          The items you take from the dining hall or fast-food restaurants
•          Unnecessary trash by buying items with little or no packaging
•          Paper use by printing on both sides of the paper or sending documents through email

Reuse:

•          Food boxes and plastic containers to store personal items
•          A thermal mug when you go out to get coffee
•          Binders, computer disks, file folders and notebooks
•          Cloth rags to clean up spills rather than using paper towels

Recycle:

•          Magazines and newspapers
•         White and color paper
•     Glass bottles
•          Batteries

All of these methods are simple and everyone can do them. I have used some of these ideas and at the end of the week I am helping the environment and I have a cleaner room. If everyone made eco-friendly waste management a part of their daily routines, they will be bettering the quality of life for themselves, their peers and their campus!

T.Y.G

For more of The Three R's go to: http://www.greenstudentu.com/green_campus/dorm_trash.aspx