Reduce and Reuse…before you Recycle!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a standard environmentalist mantra. Recycling gets a lot of emphasis–you can recycle paper, plastic, and aluminum all over campus; you can recycle plastic bags at Wegmans; you can even recycle old clothes through the Grassroots Clothing Exchange. But important, and oft overlooked, components of breaking the cycle of waste are Reducing your waste and Reusing what you can. These choices are good for the environment (less trash, more grass!) and good for your bank account–the less money you spend on new stuff, the more money you can spend on fun stuff!
Reduce: instead of buying tons of paper towels to clean up spills in your dorm room, why not invest in one or two inexpensive dishtowels? They’re easy to throw in with the rest of your wash and save you the continual expense and waste of paper towels!
Reuse: we throw away a lot of things that we can easily reuse in other guises. For instance, ever buy a can of Pirouettes at Hillside? Save the can to hold pencils, flowers, candy, or to hide valuables from your roommate. Reconsider everyday objects and try and find a new use for them in your life. You never know, you could end up with the next coolest up-cycled item since the phonebook chair
Sustainability Tip #15: In class try and use refillable binders or folders to prevent wasted pages in spiral notebooks and always take notes on both sides of the paper.
Sustainability Tip #14: Even though it may seem like the easiest thing to do, try not to use the automatic handicapped doors unless you really need them. They use a large amount of unnecessary energy that could easily be avoided by opening the door on your own.
Sustainability Tip #13: It’s more sustainable to dish-wash your dishes and not rinse them off beforehand. The best thing todo is to scape the remaining food into the trash and then just load the dishwasher without pre-rinsing.
Sustainability Tip #12: When doing laundry,
make sure to do full loads and wash in cold water to
conserve energy and water.
Sustainability Tip #11:
With Thanksgiving coming up, try and minimize your travel emissions by carpooling home with people who live in your area and don’t forget to unplug your appliances when leaving for break.
Sustainability Tip #10:
Now that the weather is getting colder, don’t forget to turn off your heater and lower your thermostat when leaving your room or apartment.
Sustainability Tip #9:
Unplug chargers when not in use as they draw out “vampire power” even when you are not charging your phone or ipod.
Old, broken or unwanted electronics gathering dust in your dorm or house?
Courtesy of UR Sustainability
Bring your items in to be recycled the responsible way through University Facilities & Services and Sunnking Electronics Recycling on E-Cycle Day, Friday, October 28th from 6:00 AM to 4:30 PM in Park Lot. Check out more about this Annual Electronics Recycling Event (acceptable materials, location map, event flyer, etc.) here.
