Moving away from home into a college dorm can be one of the most exciting or nerve-racking parts of college!. From new friends to beer pong tournaments, this is where all the fun happens! Most students are living on their own for the first time and will learn a lot of lessons the hard way. Fortunately, recycling doesn’t have to be one of those painful experiences cause luckily there is no hangover when it comes to being green!
Living in a dorm room can be overwhelming and a lot to take in at once. Being green and recycling tend to be overlooked during the exciting and wild college experience. There are plenty of tips and tricks for students living in dorms to quickly and effortlessly make their dorm rooms green! Living green student housing is a lot easier than you’d think!
Recycling
The best way to be green is to start simple. Dorms may not be the ideal situation for recycling due to the distance centralized recycling stations can be from your room. Don’t let that discourage you, there are many options available that have been designed specifically for first-time dorm recyclers.
Dorm rooms are basically the size of a shoe box, so space is something you certainly don’t have room to waste. Stackable recycling bins school the competition when it comes to saving on space.
Transporting material to a collection station can be a pain in the butt and juggling your recyclables down the hallway is certainly doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
A recycling bin with a handle makes transportation easier and more efficient. Bins like the Multi Recycler make dorm room recycling a breeze! They are compact, stack on top of one another, have a carrying handle and can also come in a variety of colors!
You have the power to change the recycling walk of shame into the recycling stride of pride!
Cooking
Cooking in dorms can also be a pain in the butt! Who wants to go down to a shared kitchen to cook when it’s a lot greener and much easier to cook out of your dorm room?
As a college student, you will naturally be drawn to using slow cookers, toaster ovens, and rice cookers. Basically, anything that does all the hard work for you! That’s perfect because using these appliances also have an environmental benefit. They are the better option for green cooking because not only do they take less electricity to operate than a full-size stove, but they are also directly heating up your food.
Let’s be honest, although it’s relatively simple to cook some delicious meals while you’re still in college. This means you probably prefer a diet of mac & cheese and ramen noodles.
Both of these college staples can be made without using a full sized stove. Don’t be afraid to venture out, you’d be surprised how delicious and healthy you can be when using crock pots and toaster ovens! The options are limitless and take little effort!
Laundry
On laundry days, skip paying to dry your clothes when you can do it for free right from your own room! Communal washers and dryers are not the greatest way to do laundry. Not only do most machines require you to pay to use them but sometimes they don’t even get your entire load dry! You might as well just skip the dryer completely and not only save money but save the planet at the same time.
A drying rack for your room makes an incredible investment! Being green is about keeping things simple and cutting back on the energy we use. By doing laundry the simple way, you’ll ultimately be cutting 50% of the energy employed by a typical laundry routine! Good job!
Unwanted Smells
One of the things that they don’t tell you about living in a dorm? The amount of stuff that could have a smell. Those weird aromas won’t go away unless you do something about it!
A simple trick to keeping your room smelling fresh is by hanging a dryer sheet from your vents. When the air blows a fresh, clean linen scent will fill your dorm room! This is much better economic and environmental option than buying a plugin and aerosol air fresheners.
It’s time to graduate from old habits and transform your dull dorm into a green room!
