Eco-Friendly Tips for Colleage and University Students

[+Green Blog]

Photo credit: ccarlstead

It wasn’t that long ago that I was a student, and I was using green ideas as a simple way of saving money. As a student, money is really tight, so you need to be economical in order to survive with the smallest amount of debt. So here are my top ideas that I used when I was at University.

Make your own meals in bulk

If you can learn how to cook easy meals such as Spaghetti Bolognese, Chill Con Carne, Chicken Curry, Beef Stew, you can make them in bulk and freeze the leftovers. I found that I could make at least 4 portions per meal, sometimes as many as 8. These meals typically scale very well. So when you make the meal, you get a fresh meal that evening and freeze the rest. When you’re feeling lazy, you just need to re-heat one of your frozen left-over meals. You just need to cook the pasta or rice to go with the meal!

You save money by buying the ingredients in bulk as well as saving packaging that you would otherwise get from microwave meals. I still use this tip to this day, giving myself a nice cooked lunch for work.

Don’t buy textbooks

Textbooks are very expensive in the UK, costing around £20 to £50 each ($40 to $100!). Therefore you can save a fortune by buying books with friends or borrowing books from your library. If you go to a library, remember to get there fast, before the other students borrow the books first!

Don’t have a car

Cars are costly things anyway, with fuel, tax, insurance and maintenance costs, they can be very pricey. Get used to using buses, trains, bicycles and walking. You’ll get to know the area better as well as saving money and the environment. Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had have been with people I’ve met on the bus or train!

Switch stuff off and use energy saving lightbulbs

Bills can be quite frightening when in a student house. Living with 5 other people, I found that electricity bills were sky high. Thankfully I managed to convince them to switch stuff off where possible and they were happy to use energy saving light bulbs.

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[EnviroGadget]

Hmm, that article looks rather familiar!

On a different note, I could do with an eco-friendly technique of getting noisy drunk students to stop screaming in the street at 2 or 3AM in the morning!

[brettbh]

On a different note, I could do with an eco-friendly technique of getting noisy drunk students to stop screaming in the street at 2 or 3AM in the morning!

Do you care about the legality of the solution?

[dirkfruitema]

hey the more university students are on the streets at night the less energy we use at our homes!!

[brettbh]

Specially trained student-sniffer hunting dogs would probably be the best solution.

[mountainhiker]

Specially trained student-sniffer hunting dogs would probably be the best solution.

Or maybe the police could just enforce the laws about disturbing the peace! B)

[brettbh]

Or maybe the police could just enforce the laws about disturbing the peace!

What fun would that be? Plus, enforcement by the police would have an obvious cost impact. Hunting, OTOH, could be licensed, creating a revenue stream which could be put into environmental causes.

[EnviroGadget]

I was chatting to a police friend the other day. He suggested ice bullets!

[only_green_no_gray]

I was chatting to a police friend the other day. He suggested ice bullets!

The only problem is that they would melt before they ever been used :D

[mountainhiker]

The only problem is that they would melt before they ever been used

Or maybe the students using some common sense! Bet if they had to sit in jail for 5 days they might suddenly develop some common sense. B)

[EnviroGadget]

There's a lot of movement towards dealing with anti-social behaviour in the UK. Sadly people's manners are rapidly worsening.

Dan

[brettbh]

Sadly people's manners are rapidly worsening.

Indeed they are. I live in a small (popluation of about 1,500) and isolated village in the Canadian wilderness where everybody knows everybody and is friendly and polite. Despite the obvious inconveniences assoicated with such a remote location, I really cannot imagine living anywhere else. I recently had to spend some time in Seattle and Dallas and ... urgh ... couldn't wait to get back home. And I was only in each city for 24 hours! I felt exactly the same way when I last returned to the UK.

[mountainhiker]

Indeed they are. I live in a small (popluation of about 1,500) and isolated village in the Canadian wilderness where everybody knows everybody and is friendly and polite. Despite the obvious inconveniences assoicated with such a remote location, I really cannot imagine living anywhere else. I recently had to spend some time in Seattle and Dallas and ... urgh ... couldn't wait to get back home. And I was only in each city for 24 hours! I felt exactly the same way when I last returned to the UK.

It does have a lot to do with large population centers. People lose a sense of responsibility in the larger cities plus you also have as a percentage, more people with anti-social attitudes. When they ban together they are more likely to act out since they have the approval of those around them.

I moved away from a big city for that reason along with some other problems I saw going on.

[brettbh]

It does have a lot to do with large population centers. People lose a sense of responsibility in the larger cities plus you also have as a percentage, more people with anti-social attitudes. When they ban together they are more likely to act out since they have the approval of those around them.

Excessively liberal attitudes are also contributing to the problem. For example, at the end of last year, the BC Supreme Court struck down a bylaw which prohibited camping in Victoria's parks because it "violated the rights of the homeless to find a place to sleep that's protected from the elements." Within days of the ruling, a tent city had been erected in the city's main park, Beacon Hill. That pretty much put the park off limits to many people. Who wants to bring their kids into an area that's home to addicts and reeks of human excrement? The last time we were in the park was shortly before Christmas and we cut the visit short after our young nephew picked up a discarded needle in the children's play area and asked, "What's this?"

Homelessness is something for which we undoubtedly need to find a solution, but the fact is that the majority of the homeless are in that position not due to being down on their luck, but due to addiction problems. Permitting addicts to sleep in city parks is not going to solve the problem, it's simply going to make life unpleasant for everybody else.

[armadillo]

Lol,true

The thought of ice bullets grows on me though...