Five Steps for a Greener East

Every time I turn on the television I see energy commercials encouraging me to “go green.” My Twitter feed is full of celebrities announcing that we should all “go green.”  And politicians are warning everyone what will happen if they don’t “go green.” With all these different platforms telling you to “go green,” how can you put their suggestions into action? Sometimes it’s hard to think of ways for you to do your part. It may seem that problems such as climate change and pollution are too big for your actions to have any impact. But the thing is you don’t have to single-handedly raise $1 million for pollution research to help. Even the smallest efforts can make a difference. Here are four easy things you can do at school to help the environment.

Ditch the trash can: recycle.

Whenever I walk to the trash can and see empty water bottles, nearly blank sheets of paper and coke cans, I want to scream. All of those things could have been recycled- we have recycling bins in every room for a reason! Those green things aren’t just for decoration.  Take advantage of the recycling bins that should be in each of your classrooms. If there isn’t a bin around, ask for one. If the bin is the corner of the room that nobody even looks at, ask your teacher to move it right next to the trash can. A simple change like that can yield dramatic results. The average secondary school, like East,  produces 48.4 pounds of waste per student each year. Experts say that basic recycling measures can decrease that number to 7.74 pounds a year. And remember you and recycle more than just paper in your classroom recycling bins. Your pop cans and bottles, cardboard coffee cups, like the ones you get from our coffee shop, and certain plastics can too. I’d rather see an overflowing recycling bin then a trash can full of things that could have been recycled.

Reusable water bottles.

Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour and 21.9 billion a year so before you buy that 24 pack of bottled water, think about buying a reusable water bottle. A typical Nalgene bottle costs between $5-10. A 24 pack of water costs around $3.50. Not only will save money in the long run, you’ll make a significant impact on the environment. What people sometimes don’t realize is that water bottle have to be shipped to stores. This usually occurs in semi trucks which get around 6-8 mpg. So whether you are into pink and sparkly or basic blue, there is one out there sure to fit your style. Plus you can decorate them with bumper stickers to make them more personal. The water fountains at school contain the same water you would get if you bought a water bottle from the cafeteria there is no health benefit either way. But there is a convenience benefit, you can fill up whenever you need to. Unlike the cafeteria, the water fountains never close.

H:Drive/Web Backpack

Web Backpack has been around for years. Freshman and sophomore year I mostly ignored it and I’ll admit not many of my teachers use it. But once I found out the many ways it can be put to use, I was hooked. Americans make roughly 400 billion photo copies a year, which translates to about 750,000 copies a minute. If teachers provided worksheets to you online, they could reduce the number of copies they make personally. But even better, you should take advantage of the H:Drive provided to you on your Web Backpack account. It is a really great tool to help you “go green.” Everything you save on your school account is stored on your H:Drive, you can access this folder from any computer, even when you are at home. Knowing this, you can write your essay, edit it on the computer, and print it once. Let’s say you go through four drafts when writing a four-page English paper. If you only print your final draft you are saving 12 sheets of paper. If a 30 person class did this, they would save 360 pieces of paper. If every English participated in a similar process the paper savings would add up.

Doubled sided homework.

A simple way for you to save some paper is to reuse the paper you do assignments on. For instance, if you use one side of the paper for a math assignment, do the next night’s homework on the back. Just make sure to ask your teacher beforehand because some may not accept it. If they seem against it at first, push them. Just explain your reasoning behind wanting to and they should understand. Even if you only have half a page left, use it up before grabbing a new sheet. If you really want to help your class save paper, ask your teacher to print your worksheets double sided and hang onto them for multiple assignments. If the teacher knows he or she will use two worksheets that week they can just print one page that contains both, instead of wasting two sheets of paper per student. You just have to remember to keep track of them, the less extras you have to ask for, the less copies the teacher has to make.

When I first decided to “go green” the task seemed daunting. I was convinced nothing I could do would help too much. I didn’t realize that the simplest things can bring big change. If everyone did little things, think of the change we could bring. After all, it was the little “bad” things we did that got us into this mess in the first place.