HOW TO BE A MORE SUSTAINABLE STUDENT
Sustainability is becoming more and more important by the day.
With the declared climate emergency, we have no choice now but to make changes to our everyday routines. For some people becoming vegan or vegetarian is
viable- and I absolutely salute you! I have
been a veggie for around 5 years and am starting to shop vegan as much as I can
(but I love cheese A LOT).
Its not going to be an overnight process. Which is why I
have broken it down into some easy steps students can introduce into their everyday
lives.
1.
Recycle the right things
It varies from town to town, which is why I wanna do a lil
breadown for Leeds students. Our recycling facilities are pretty poor within
Hyde Park and Headingley, but I think this is due to previous students
disinterest in doing things properly- so lets change it !!
Firstly, make sure whatever you are recycling is rinsed and
clean, glass or plastic that is dirty or greasy isn’t recycled so make sure you
just whack it under the tap for ten seconds. It varies what each council accept
so here is a breakdown of the items-
Glass has to recycled
ourselves in local bottle banks, which are about a 5-10min walk away from
most houses (700 bottle banks within Leeds). In our house we have a massive bag
we fill with bottles every week and then one of us just takes it out with us when
its full on the way to work or uni etc. The amount of wine bottles and beer bottles
that come out our house weekly is a bit mad, so doing your bit and recycling them
is really important within alcoholic areas like Hyde Park lol xx
There’s actually an app called Leeds Bins which allows you to find your nearest one at all times
so download that if you’re a real one x
At home, the council takes ALL the recyclables, so I
only learnt recently that in they Leeds don’t recycle everything you put it in your normal GREEN recycling bin. Do not put your black bin bags
in the GREEN bins.
This is another thing which is different for me from home-
the wheely bin colours. In Leeds the BLACK
bin is for black bin bags and landfill.
GREEN wheely bins are for your recyclables- card, paper,cans and plastic
etc.
Your stella tinnys, aliminum and foil can
also all go in the green bin so get dem baked bins tins rinsed and put in there.
Cardboard – for the
people at the back GREASY PIZZA BOXES CANNOT BE RECYLED. I literally only
learnt this recently and have literally always put the many takeaway pizza
boxes our 9 man student house produced in the recycling bin- what I fool I was
those 5 months ago.
Make sure all your cardboard is dry and not covered in food
n shit so it is actually usable basically.
2.
Cycle, walk or bus as much as
poss
Easier said than done on those cold northern mornings when
your lecture starts in 20 mins and you are still in ten hoodies and under your
weighted blanket but avoid your use of ubers if you can help it.
The First Bus app is good in Leeds for helping you plan how
to get from A to B and includes maps of how to walk to your nearest stops etc if
you are going somewhere a bit different.
3. Have a meat free night a week as a house
3. Have a meat free night a week as a house
If you aren’t already veggie, cooking something without meat
just one night a week has amazing impacts. I am not shoving the idea of being a
veggie down anyone’s throats as I understand it can be a hard thing for people
to give up. But starting with one night a week meat free is so easy….pizza,
pastas, curries etc all taste just as good without meat.
Another easy swap for me was stopping buying milk. I have only just discovered oat milk but its so much nicer in coffee, porridge, cereal etc so a very easy alternative to milk!
4. Stop buying new outfits for every event
I am a reformed fast
fashion slave. I used to lap up every 25% off offer on Missguided, PLT etc. Removing
the apps and unfollowing their social medias have halved the amount of content
I see from them. The temptation is real.
Use Depop and charity
shops as much as you can. It sounds cliché but you find so many cooler one off
pieces that nobody else has. Whenever I wear stuff I got from ASOS I literally
see three other girls with the same item on…delete those fast fashion apps,
download depop and take a trip to Headingley to get some second hand steals.
The fast fashion industry is the third biggest polluter and half the clothes they produce are clapped anyway so lets all stop relying on them for our £5 crop tops which fall apart after three wears!
Student deals have made us all absolute slaves to these brands but resisting buying low quality shit all the time is actually a skill which I have only just mastered.You have to question why your whole Shein order came to £15 when you have 4 different bikinis, two tops and 3 different necklaces in your basket....the stuff is literally soooo badly made and lasts like a week.
Shop less and buy better quality items. Instead of getting 3 tops for a tenner, buy something ethically sourced or vintage for slightly more which will last you years. It is all about quality not quantity when it comes to combating our greedy consumer behaviours within the fashion industry.
5. Resell clothes, do clothes swaps with friends or recycle the textiles
If you need extra
funds, depoping your old garments is a good little earner. Sometimes I am just
bored of looking at something, it is in perfect condition but I have just gone
off it- might as well take 5 mins out your day to list it on your depop and let
someone else extends its life.
If you cant be
bothered with the idea of reselling clothes, then doing clothes swaps with
friends are so fun. Us gals all did one in summer where we made a bag of stuff each
that we were gonna give to charity and got pissed and auctioned them off. Its
funny how something you are so bored of could be absolute treasure to someone
else.
There was nothing
wrong with any of the clothes but was so fun just swapping clothes and fighting
over who got what lol xx
If that still doesn’t
appeal to you then drop them off at your local charity shop or textiles recycling
bin (do not put in your main bin as it will go straight to landfill!!!!)
I hope these 5 quick
tips will implement even the smallest change to our student community within
Leeds and prove to the council we are capable of having multiple bins and using
them correctly LOL.
(Watch this space as I am currently working on a fun recycling project which will be available for every student house soon)
(Watch this space as I am currently working on a fun recycling project which will be available for every student house soon)
