It’s my freshman year and I’m standing in front of the washing machine, staring, puzzled, at the buttons. “Hot.” “Warm.” “Cold.” “Normal.” “Permanent Press.” Hmm, I think, considering my options while popping quarters into the greedy metal mouth. Glug glug. I absently pour translucent blue liquid into the cap of my detergent bottle. It comes out quickly, fills up the cap and overflows, dripping down my fingers and onto the ground. Grrr. I make a face, wipe away the blue splatter on the floor with my sneaker, dump the contents of the brimming cap into the washer, hit hot, then normal, and run away to un-sticky my hands.
This was how my laundry routine continued for approximately a year and a half. Since my clothes survived that first experience without shrinking or turning blue, I figured I’d stick with what worked. It didn’t occur to me that there might be reason to change until one day over lunch a friend of mine mentioned that she washed her clothes in cold water to be more environmentally friendly.
Now, I like to think of myself as an earth-friendly girl. I’m a vegetarian, I recycle my bottles, and yes, I do occasionally hug trees. But frankly, it had just never occurred to me that pressing different buttons in the laundry room would have an environmental impact. But it does. Heating water requires electricity and electricity requires energy consumption (i.e. oil burning). This may seem obvious but hey, I never made the connection until I stopped to think about it.
So now I wash my clothes on “cold” and use only a half-cup of detergent (more is unnecessary). Sometimes I don’t even use the dryer. I save my quarters and 50 minutes’ worth of electricity and use a drying rack. This way my clothes don’t get left to wrinkle in the bottom of the dryer when I forget about them and go out to meet friends at the GSU. And — an even better perk — everyone who visits my dorm room gets to see my Scooby-Doo underwear on display.
But seriously, it’s easy to be wasteful without even thinking about it. Especially when you’re a college student and your priorities lie elsewhere: partying, clubbing, staying up late to flirt with the cute guy down the hall… oh yes, and studying, of course. But here’s the thing: there are a bunch of things that you can do to help the planet that require little or no personal sacrifice. All that’s required is a simple change of habit. Since it’s the start of a brand new school year, why not try these ideas on for size:
-As you’re rushing out of your room to get to class on time, smack off the light as you leave. It takes zero time, but most of us just forget to do it.
-When you go to CVS to buy handsoap for your bathroom cubby hole, don’t buy the antibacterial stuff. There’s really no need to be zapping every bacterium on your skin, and using antibacterial soap will only cause stronger, more resistant strains of bacteria to evolve. Before you know it, scary mutant “T”-sized bacteria will be roaming Commonwealth Avenue eating people. Well, maybe not. But still, it could be bad.
-Shower time! If you’re a girl, shower time often involves shaving your legs. And sometimes it takes a while. Do you really need to have the water running the whole time? Nah! Turn it off, do your thing, then turn it back on to rinse off. That’s several minutes’ worth of hot running water you’ve just saved. And if you do that every time, you’ll save a lot of water and electricity.
-Recycling: In my opinion, BU could be a lot better in the recycling department. But even though there are no recycling bins in the classroom buildings and it’s rare to find any in the brownstones, we DO have recycling bins in all of the large dormitories. So use them!
-Recycling is great, but re-use is even better. After all, it still requires energy to crush and process thousands of plastic bottles. So rinse out that Aquafina bottle and refill it with tap water.
-At the dining hall: You love that Annabel’s ice cream, don’t you? Me too! And it’s really convenient that there are paper cups and plastic spoons right next to the tubs so you can take your dessert back to your room. But if you’re sticking around the cafeteria chatting with your dinner buddies while you have your ice cream, there’s no need to use the paper and plastic! Just because the disposable ones are right there doesn’t mean you can’t use the real, washable bowls and spoons.
-Another crazy dining hall idea: Be adventurous and try the vegan entrée. You don’t have to be a vegan or even a vegetarian to eat meat-free meals every once and a while. And eating veggies is good for the environment. I’m serious! Raising livestock for meat requires a huge investment of energy and resources and creates large amounts of waste. The amount of energy required to grow vegetables, grains and beans is tiny in comparison. Therefore, forgoing meat (at least some of the time) supports a more efficient use of the world’s resources. And hey, those vegan entrees can be pretty good (I’m a big fan of the vegan moussaka), and the line is always shorter than the main entrée line.
Those are my tips for starting off the year on an earth-friendly note. You can take them or leave them. Remember, you don’t have to be a hemp-wearing frutarian to be environmentally aware. You just have to think outside the box.