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🌲🌿 Being A Green Student 🌿🌲

Hello my studious friends! I’ve decided I’d (finally) make the green student guide that I’ve been promising forever. Here you’ll find a handy list of ways you can stay environmentally conscious while hitting the books. Feel free to pick a choose what suggestions work best for you and your lifestyle. Again, these are purely suggestions, but I really recommend adopting as many as you can. All of us, especially those in the traditionally “western” nations with outrageous carbon footprints (aka America and many parts of Europe), need to start thinking about how we impact our planet in our daily lives. It’s the only one we have. At first, these suggestions may seem excessive or strange, but I promise, after a week or two, they’ll feel like second nature. So, I hope you take up these tips, and enjoy my guide to be a greener student!

Disclaimer: I understand that being green can be expensive, with little reward besides a cleaner lifestyle and conscious. I’m a financially impaired student, just like many of you. I’m not one to go around attacking people for not trying to be sustainable, just passing along tips I’ve picked up. That said, most of these tips can be modified, with a dash of creativity, to fit your monetary needs. And, obviously, I’m not saying that if you’re struggling to feed yourself you should go drop all your money on recycled notebooks, because that would be ridiculous.

Open the Read More to, well, read more!

Supplies

Paper and Notebooks

Buy paper and notebooks made of post-consumer recycled material instead of 100% new materials. You’ll see recycling pop up a lot throughout this post, because helps cut down on the amount of waste going into landfills and the carbon emissions from producing new items. Yes, recycled items tend to be more expensive, but hover around the same price as the nicely decorated notebooks. Consider buying a recycled notebook and doing one of the many DIYs out there to spruce it up yourself.

When you’re done with a sticky note, a notebook, or the school year just ended and your about to have a bonfire with all the homework you hated, recycle it instead of throwing it in the trash. You’d be surprised how much paper you use that just ends up sitting in a landfill for hundreds of years.

Consider going digital! Classes not heavy in numbers or formulas, like history or languages, are easiest for digital notes. Even if it’s just for one or two classes, you can save a ton of paper.

You’ll probably catch on that most of my tips involve reducing your consumption of material things. This is so so important, not only for your environment, but for you mental health. Not having so many things around you all the time can clear your mind (a clean space = a clean mind), and you’ll break or stop from developing bad habits like retail therapy or devaluing your dollar and the things you’re buying.

Pens, Markers, Highlighters, etc.

This tip might hit close to home for some of you, but hear me out. You don’t need so many pens and markers. The plastic and ink those pens use adds up in landfills very quickly. Making the material involves loads of ugly pollutants and are mostly made in countries without stringent environmental regulations. They pollute rivers and oceans that animals and people depend on. How many of those nice Muji or Pilot Juice pens do you actually use on a daily basis? Chances are, you could get by just fine with one set of your favorite colored pens and markers and few of your best black/blue pens.

I’m not saying to throw out recycle the one you don’t like or use (although donating them can clear up some clutter), but once you finish a set of the pens you don’t like, don’t buy them again. And once you finish any pen, recycle it!

Don’t buy anything ONLY because they’re popular on Tumblr or within the studyblr community. Muji pens, Mildliners, Stabio, Staedler… these brands are all pretty darn expensive and there is a chance you won’t even like them. Go to a store and see if you can test them out or borrow from a friend to see if you like them before buying.

Sticky Notes, Washi Tapes, etc.

I’ll be honest, this is my biggest weakness. I love sticky notes so much. And washi makes everything look so freaking cute, and putting a nice picture in my planner makes me really happy. And, like everything, there are ways to make them sustainable.

Post-consumer everything!

Recycle everything! Every finished post-it note, every unneeded scrap of washi.

Instead of printing out pictures from Tumblr or the web, consider using clippings from magazines you find interesting, like National Geographic, for example, or pamphlets you get in the mail. This can really cut down on the amount of paper you’re printing on and the ink you use (which can save you some money, too). Using magazine clippings is my favorite way to get cute pictures, because I get to read cool articles and re-purpose an item I’d buy anyways and would otherwise go into the waste stream.

Other Supplies

Look for tape dispensers, staplers, pencil cases, and any other supplies that are made from post-consumer materials. Invest in high-quality reusable items that you use often, like your stapler, tape dispenser, hole punch, and paper clips. These can be kept and used to years and years. My mom still has a tape dispenser with a weighted base she bought more than twenty years ago. Investing in high-quality products not only saves you the pain and money of buying cheaply made products over and over, but they cut down on your personal waste stream.

Studying and Planning

For the act of studying itself, try to use as little paper as possible. If you mess up and feel the urge to discard the entire paper, use correction tape to block it out, or better yet, just cross it out with your pen. A few mistakes in your notes won’t distract from how aesthetic they are, and that isn’t even the main goal. An ugly crossed out word will not make rest of the information less valuable. If you mess up, just save your paper, cross it out, and move on.

Try out a digital flashcard creator, like Quizlet, instead of using a hundred paper flashcards for one test. You won’t have to recycle all those cards at the end of the year and they’ll be saved digitally instead of taking up all that space in your closet or desk drawers.

Again, go digital for your notes or some of your study materials, like study guides or summaries.

Instead of using a printable for daily planning every single day, invest in a planner. This will save you money in the long run because you’re not wasting your copy paper or printer ink. Only use printables with specialized uses, like essay planning or exam prep.

General Lifestyle Tips

Carry a reusable water bottle with you everywhere. I mean, literally everywhere. This will save you so much money and is one of the biggest sources of pollution and waste.

Consider a more sustainable diet, aka consuming less animal products. This isn’t feasible for everyone for many reasons (health, money, etc.), but I guarantee if you think hard enough, you can come up with easy ways to substitute your meat and dairy products. I’m a diehard meat lover, but I’ve been a vegetarian for over a year with very little slip ups. Even just substituting one veggie burger for a beef burger can save hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide and methane from polluting the air.

To bounce off the last point, eat more vegetables. Good for your health, good for the planet.

Try walking, taking public transportation, or carpooling when possible.

Go to your local secondhand shop when looking for new clothes or the like. They likely won’t have the most trendy pieces, but you’ll be surprised by what you can find. Secondhand anything, rather than new, is better anyways.

Bring your coffee (no k-cups!) from home. This is honestly the hardest part of a sustainable life style for me, mostly because of the convenience of my campus having such cheap coffee (only $1.50 for 12oz.? come on). But it still costs me money I don’t have to spend, and many (many) paper cups and lids being recycled. There is so much waste surrounding coffee, from plant to brew, and so easy to make a dent in its impact. As far as taste goes, you can easily make your own coffee taste just as great (likely, better) than Starbucks with some flavored creamer or syrup.

Similarly, bring your lunch from home. Not only will it likely be cheaper, but it can easily be healthier and have more than your standard restaurant lunch. Use glass or plastic containers instead of single-use baggies and bring your metal silverware from home.

Like I touched on before, reduce your consumption! Obviously, if you want something really bad, buy it. But before you do, reflect on why you want it. Is it purely for aesthetics or to fit in? Or will it legitimately help your studies?

Invest in high-quality reusable items that you use often, like your stapler, tape dispenser, hole punch, and paper clips. These can be kept and used to years and years. My mom still has a tape dispenser with a weighted base she bought more than twenty years ago. Investing in high-quality products not only saves you the pain and money of buying cheaply made products over and over, but they cut down on your personal waste stream.

🌟 Thank you for reading, and I wish you all a productive and sustainable day! 🌟

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