If you’re planning to return to campus this spring, here’s a great resource for you! EcoRep Marissa Mejia ’23 created this Move-In Guide video on how to pack sustainably. Remember to bring only what you need!
For more information about how to keep sustainability in mind during Move-In, visit the Office of Sustainability’s Move-In website, read our blog post, or visit the Undergraduate Housing website.
Author: Pooja Parmar ‘22
One of the most exciting and stressful days of college is quickly approaching— Move-In. After being off-campus for 1.5 semesters, many of us are looking forward to moving in and reviving our Princeton experience. Even though campus life will not be the same, I know we are looking forward to seeing new faces and taking random walks throughout campus once again. Going into Move-In day with the right mindset could help you start the semester off with the right foot. This is our first opportunity of the semester to help Princeton achieve its zero-waste goal.
The emergency Move-Out in March 2020 exposed how wasteful dorm life can be. While the Office of Sustainability and Building Services staff tried to collect and organize as much of the leftover furniture and materials as possible, due to the rush of Move-Out, much of it was thrown away. To put this into perspective, during the 2019 Move-Out, over 50 tons (equivalent to the weight of about 7.5 elephants1) of dorm materials were left behind on campus by students.
The Office of Sustainability’s Greening Move-Out program collected, sorted and cleaned about 13.10 tons of items for reuse through the Move-In Resale (pictured below) and donation to local organizations. The rest (about 70%) was sent to landfill due to the poor condition of the item or damage that could have been caused from any stage between drop-off to when it was picked up for donation as well as lack of storage space. Many items are also not able to be donated or recycled such as pillows and comforters. Therefore, without the organization and Greening Move-Out effort, you can imagine the amount of waste that was produced from the emergency Move-Out and the need to reduce the amount of items brought to campus in the first place.
Images from 2019 Move-In Resale
We can do better by making sure to keep sustainability in mind during Move-In. Here are some tips when preparing for Spring 2021 Move-In:
Sustainability is all about building small and manageable habits that you can incorporate into your lifestyle. Treat Move-In as an opportunity to build some new habits into your life and to explore minimalist living and secondhand shopping.
More information about the Spring 2021 Move-In is available on the Undergraduate Housing website.
Sources:
Graphics and text by Lazarena Lazarova ’21 – originally appeared on @Tigersgogreen Instagram
One way to use less paper is to use more of it, or rather use it more efficiently! We know that sometimes you just have to print something out, so check your settings before you hit “Print.”
If you have a misprint or used paper from past semesters you don’t know what to do with, give yourself a fun study break and make paper crafts using these materials.
Here are some ideas of cool creations you can make! For one, you can practice your origami skills, or you can create paper snowflakes to decorate your window if winter is approaching. Color the paper or use it as is, there are so many possibilities – get creative!
You know about the importance of recycling your paper by having proper recycling bins and following your recycler’s guidelines, but that’s not the only way you can give your paper a second life. If you have access to a composting system, or can start up a compost bin for yourself, you can compost your paper as well!
Some compost systems can only handle shredded paper, so check what yours can work with and cut up the paper with a shredder or using a pair of scissors. Likewise, not all paper can be composted, like colored and glossy paper, which might contain some toxic heavy metals, but newsprint and other paper is safe to use as mulch or in compost. In fact, one study revealed that paper had less toxic material than straw or grass!
In the U.S., an estimated 640,000 tons of books are sent to the landfill annually. At an assumed average weight of 4 pounds each, that’s approximately 320 million books discarded each year!
If guidelines allow it, donate your books to libraries, resell them online, pass them on to students planning on taking the same class, or organize socially-distanced book swaps with your friends! Conversely, see if you can buy your textbooks second-hand, rent them, or get digital versions!
Graphics and text by Lazarena Lazarova ’21 – originally appeared on @Tigersgogreen Instagram
On average, a college student is assigned about 400 pages of reading per week. In place of printing out those papers, consider using digital tools to read, annotate, and organize them instead! At the simplest level, you can highlight and comment on PDF files with programs such as Mac’s Pages, Google Docs, and Adobe Acrobat. You can also use digital platforms, like Quizlet or Brainscape, to make personalized online flashcards!
How often do you grab a fresh sheet of paper to use for scratch work only to toss it later that day? To cut down on your paper waste, swap scratch paper for a whiteboard instead! You can use a spare whiteboard lying around your house, a notebook with whiteboard-surface pages, a peel-and-stick sheet of whiteboard surface you can place on a wall or on your desk, or even a laminated white sheet!
The best way to be sustainable is to make use of what you already have! If you prefer working on paper, be sure to fill up pages as much as possible before getting a clean sheet. Reduce the size of your handwriting, use the backside of a one-sided print out for quick notes, and write with a pencil or an erasable pen to get more than one use of a piece of paper.
Not only can you use what you have, but sometimes you can reuse it too! With some objects, you can often replace only the parts you need! For example, if your favorite pen runs out of ink, see if you can replace only its ink cartridge instead of the entire pen unit itself. Not only is this more sustainable, but it can also be less expensive too.
Electronic waste (e-waste) describes discarded electrical or electronic devices – smartphones, fridges, you name it – and as of 2019, is one of the fastest growing waste streams on Earth. Not only does e-waste contain harmful chemicals that can end up in our soil, water, and air when improperly disposed, but it can also be illegally exported to countries that don’t have laws on handling/disposing of it. Since remote studying relies heavily on technology, be mindful of your e-waste: consider if you really need to get the most recent laptop or phone model if yours already functions well, or see if you can repair parts of your device instead of purchasing a brand new one. If you do decide to discard a device, look into legitimate channels to go through – for example, big manufacturers like Apple and Best Buy accept e-waste!
Author: Claire Wayner ’22
Stuck at home and tired of your garbage can getting stinky? A full 22% of your trash (or more) is likely food, and food waste doesn’t smell too great after a couple of days. There’s an easy and environmentally friendly solution to the odor – start composting!
By breaking down the food in combination with leaves and water, the process yields a rich, nutrient-filled soil additive called compost that can be used in your home garden beds or gifted to your neighbors (here is an article on the benefits of compost for your garden). Composting at home is really easy to start up and doesn’t require a ton of resources. My family has been composting since I was in middle school, and since then, we’ve learned a lot of helpful tips which I’ll share with you below.
During the day, we collect our food scraps indoors in an old yogurt container in the fridge to prevent it from smelling up our kitchen counter. We then empty the scraps into our outdoor composter whenever the indoor container is full. Our outdoor composter is a tumbling, elevated version which we keep in our backyard. It’s definitely worth the investment to buy a model like the one we have because it keeps food scraps contained and elevated (to prevent us from attracting unwanted pests like rats, as we live in a city) and also makes it easier to regularly turn the compost (moving the scraps around is important to promote breakdown and aeration). You don’t need a shiny new container to start composting, however. In a pinch, you can build your own out of anything from milk crates to recycled lumber.
Keep in mind that you can’t compost all of your food scraps at home – things like dairy, meat, prepared foods/dishes, and disposables marked as “compostable” should stay out of your home compost, as they won’t break down unless put in a more industrialized composting environment like Princeton’s S.C.R.A.P. Lab. Stick to things like fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, or clippings from your yard (raked leaves in the fall are great!). Try to get your ratio of “greens” (e.g., grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps) to “browns” (e.g., leaves, eggshells) right.
There are plenty of tutorials online on how to get started (check out this one from NPR). If you live in a dense city and can’t easily set up a compost bin, there are always countertop composters for apartments, or you could check to see if your municipality offers curbside composting pickup (ShareWaste has a great directory of where to drop off your compost if you can’t use it in your home).
By starting to compost, you can make a big difference. Most greenhouse gas emissions from landfills come from the breakdown of food. Composting can reduce these greenhouse gas emissions and give us a usable product at the end of it.
Author: Claire Wayner ’22
Many of us are living in very different locations because of COVID, so it’s important to get familiar with your area’s recycling guidelines for curbside pickup. Each municipality has their own rules, which sounds frustrating at first, but trust me – it won’t take you very long to get used to them, and you’ll save a lot of carbon emissions and resources in the process (recycling aluminum cans, for instance, saves 95% of the energy originally used to manufacture them!). Recycling correctly is also key to reducing contamination, which can cause whole bags of recycling to get thrown out.
Start off by Googling recycling rules for your city or county. Many municipalities create “cheat sheets” for you to print out and stick on your fridge to remember which items are recyclable and which are not. For those items that aren’t accepted for curbside recycling, some might still be accepted at grocery stores or special recycling centers (a classic example is a plastic bag – most grocery stores have plastic bag collection bins by the entryway). I encourage you to go the extra mile and collect and drop off those items that your municipality doesn’t accept at the curb.
This fall, I’m living off-campus with friends, and we discovered that our house doesn’t get any curbside recycling service. You might be in this boat, too! In these cases, there is usually a recycling center nearby where you can drive your materials on a weekly basis. I found a local recycling center in town, and every week, when we go grocery shopping, I bring our recycling with me and drop it off at the center, where I have to sort it by the material. I know this sounds tedious, but I actually really look forward to visiting the recycling center – the act of sorting teaches me where my recycled materials are going. It’s not a lot more work, as it’s right next to the grocery store, and in some states, you can even make money from dropping off your recyclables (like states with beverage container deposits).
Send us photos of you recycling, and know that it makes a difference. Only 9% of plastic, 25% of glass, and 50% of aluminum cans are recycled. You can help increase those numbers!
Author: Eve Cooke ’22
What is fast fashion?
Fast fashion—like fast food—is cheap, easy to get your hands on, and not that good for you or the environment. Merriam-Webster defines fast fashion as “An approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.” Fast fashion companies can sell their clothing at such a low price because the environment and the workers who make the clothes are absorbing the cost. To maximize profits, fast-fashion companies underpay and overwork their workers, cut corners on quality control and workplace safety, and produce environmental emissions that pollute our air, water, and land.
There are several organizations that are dedicated to reforming fast fashion companies and educating consumers, including the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Fashion Revolution. As consumers and citizens of the world, we have the power to take action against fast fashion.
Here’s a list of some of the other hidden costs behind fast fashion, along with ways that you can take action to mitigate the damage caused by this industry:
What can we do?: Join the Fashion Revolution and support their campaign to pressure fast fashion companies to put an end to forced labor from their supply chains, pay their workers a living wage, provide safe working conditions, and to be transparent about who makes the clothes they sell.
What can we do?: Remake, an organization dedicated to ending fast fashion, suggests that “[by] doubling the life of clothing from one to two years, we can help reduce emissions from clothing production and disposal by as much as 24%.” You can also try to only buy clothing that you need and that you will wear over and over again. If you have the resources, supporting ethical and sustainable brands and investing in durable pieces is a really great option, but making thoughtful and careful purchases is also an important way for anyone on any budget to shop more sustainably.
Remember to take care of the clothes you already have by repairing rips or missing buttons and altering or upcycling clothes you don’t wear anymore. If you want inspiration or information about repairing and upcycling clothes, check out Mend’s Instagram (@tigers_who_mend).
What can we do?: Try to buy second-hand clothing. If you are in Princeton, check out Greene Street or the Nearly New Shop. You can also buy and sell used clothing on various websites and apps such as eBay, Depop, Etsy, ThredUP, and Poshmark. Vintage clothing is also an affordable way to find high-quality and unique clothing on a budget. If you are cleaning out your wardrobe, try swapping clothes with your friends or selling your clothing online. That way your clothes will wind up with someone who will actually wear them!
Want to learn more about fast fashion? Join Princeton Mend and John-Hopkins University on November 13th to watch and discuss The True Cost!
Eve Cooke ‘22 is a Mend Leader and EcoRep for the Office of Sustainability
