When you are living at home and have the help and discipline of parents and a family environment, it is much easier to try to be as green as possible in your living habits. However, when the time comes for you to move to college, a dorm room is a whole other challenge! With a hectic student lifestyle and not quite as much discipline around as at home, it’s easy to slip in to bad habits, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Start the year off right! Here are some ways to make your dorm room go green!
Something nice you can do is create a little herb garden all of your own. Herbs are generally very low maintenance, so they will fit in with a busy student life, and they have the double effect of making you a little more self sufficient and also making your questionable student meals taste better!
Grab yourself a set of reusable cutlery so that you don’t have to keep picking up plastic knives and forks every time you go to the dining hall. Cutting down on plastic use is one the things you should be most conscious about.
Instead of throwing your clothes into a drying machine every time you do a wash, invest in a drying rack instead and let them air out naturally. It might take a little longer, but it is much more environmentally friendly.
I get that it can get kind of hectic in a dorm room and dorm kitchen, but try your very best to separate the packaging and rubbish that can be recycled. Once you get into the swing of it, it becomes second nature.
Make an effort to get your hands on cleaning products that are green and eco friendly. You should be trying to avoid dousing all your surfaces and possessions in potentially harmful and harsh chemicals.
So goodbye to your old life of grabbing a plastic or brown bag in every shop; they are literally killing the environment. It takes virtually no effort to carry a few reusable tote style bags out with you when you go shopping, and it can make such a difference.
Buck the student trend of cactuses and get some really nice quality house plants in your dorm room. They are great for air purification, as well as making you look like a much more mature person than you might be still growing to be.
Buy a reusable coffee cup that you can fill every morning rather than contributing to the mountain of disposable cups that the coffee shops give out every single day. If we all did that, it would dramatically reduce the amount of garbage that ends up on our planet and in our oceans.