Reduce, re-use and clean your dorm: Ways to help the NGU hills and valleys
Seth Atkins, Editor-In-Chief
North Greenville University, you eat, sleep and live here: but keeping this home away from home a clean environment can start with just making the bed.
Helping the environment can start right in a dorm room. When it comes to helping the environment on a campus such as NGU, it is common for college students to not know where to start. As students in college, there are small acts that can improve the environment on our very campus.
The start could mean washing bedsheets, pillowcases and those dirty clothes on the floor. Billy Watson, director of student services, suggests that students here at NGU should use the free laundry services to make sure their dorms are clean.
Watson said, “We have older buildings, but there is an accountability for students to keep a clean space, and it makes it easier for the campus to maintain.” He points out that keeping a clean dorm can better the smell, state and structure of the room.
Another great way for students to help the environment is to recycle. There are multiple ways on campus to recycle items.
For example, North Greenville itself recycles cardboard. The school has a cardboard recycling system behind the Todd Dinning Hall. Watson said, “Students can put their left-over cardboard behind the cafeteria under a big shed, and there is a compacter back there that makes blocks out of the cardboard.”
In fact, there is a new and improved recycling program on the NGU campus that was started by TriBeta, the biology honors society. The plan to revive the recycling club was headed by, biology major, Lauren Bell.
NGU had a previous club for recycling, but that club dwindled out. Watson said, “The reason the past club failed was because it was a club, and the leadership did not maintain the cleanup.” The products in the bins were not picked up regularly and overflowed to the floor.
The new recycling program, however, has already begun work by placing new recycling bins for plastic bottles inside the stud. They also have recycling bins for paper around campus.
Earth science Professor Lee Mitchell said, “We have big blue recycling bins for paper, junk mail, old envelopes.” He also said, “I hate to see so much paper in the trash and not in the recycling bins.”
Recycle bins can be found in Crain, the science and math building, and in the stud. More bins are hopefully to be added on campus by the new recycling club.
Mitchell also suggests to students to save your aluminum products and take them home to recycle since the school, at the moment, does not have recycling bins for that.
“If students are willing to take the leadership for the recycling club, it will be successful,” said Watson. It is important to have student involvement with helping the environment, and every small contribution helps.
Students can also take part in the new green and reusable to-go box system that the dining hall is using. The cost is $5, and you can receive one of the new to-go boxes. Then, you will be able to take your used box to trade for a new clean one.
Senior Lydia Kytle said, “I am often running from place to place, so getting a to-go box is incredibly convenient for me, and I use one a lot.”
Not only is this new to go box system convenient to students, but it is also good for the environment. Kytle said, “Having the reusable to-go box has saved me from having multiple Styrofoam boxes that will just go in the trash.”
The new to go boxes in the cafeteria are to help cut down on the use of the Styrofoam. So, you can help the environment and eat too.
Mitchell suggests that students can also try to conserve water usage. Since there is a large number of people living in one location, water gets used at a high rate. So, you could conserve water by taking shorter showers or turning the water off while brushing teeth.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the standard shower heads use 2.5 gallons of water per minute. So, shaving off just one minute of a normal shower routine could save gallons at a time.
According to Carrington.edu, college students can try to see if there are online textbook options instead of the hard copy version. That way there is a conservation of paper and ink.
The Green Office reports that approximately 4 billion trees are cut down each year to make for paper. The toxic chemicals in ink can have a negative effect on the environment. Every page saved from printing helps.
Even though North Greenville is known for its steep hills, another way students can help the environment is to not use a car to get to class. This could look like walking, riding a scooter or biking to class.
“Reduce your carbon footprint by walking or biking to class instead of driving,” According to Carrington.edu.
This step does not have to be an everyday thing. Pick certain times and days that are appropriate and work for your schedule to walk to class. In fact, getting to class by walking can provide health benefits, a fellowship task and an awareness of the scenery that surrounds.
Even while at school and away from home sweet home, college students can have a hand in helping the environment.
