With climate crisis activists like Greta Thunberg capturing the attention of the world, the pressure for sustainable change is rightfully in the spotlight.
The Earth’s average surface temperature has increased by 0.9°C, causing record-breaking heat waves, flash floods, and rampant forest fires worldwide. We have seen these destructive events breaking headlines and triggering environmental concern. The harsh reality is that these events are linked to the human-made emissions being released into the atmosphere at accelerated rates.
The zero-waste movement encourages a lifestyle that does not include excess waste. Garbage is a disposable, human-made by-product. It is not something created naturally by our ecological environments, but rather, a waste source that is largely contributing to climate change. Garbage is often overlooked because we live in a disposable society, and the repercussions of our waste creation are not widely spoken of. However, when organic waste begins to decompose in landfills, destructive pollutants, like carbon dioxide and methane gas, are released. When these gases release, they trap heat in our atmosphere, thus contributing to the overall change in Earth’s temperature. Inorganic and toxic waste products include plastics, glass, aluminium, batteries, motor oil, and chemicals. Plastics that end up in our oceans poison our marine life, and those that go to the landfill leach chemicals into the groundwater and contaminate our water supply.
With the high demand of disposable products consumed worldwide, Canada is ranked as the fourth among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for the level of per capita consumption, sending 510 kilograms of waste per capita to landfills every year.
Although natural emissions such as water vapour, methane, and carbon dioxide are inevitable, our increased demands for single-use products are causing these emissions to increase at excessive and harmful rates. We need to understand how our individual actions are contributing to these large environmental consequences because the climate crisis is thriving and sustainability needs to be a worldwide priority.
Here are some small, cost-effective changes students can take to become more sustainable, while decreasing waste. Every small change creates large strides towards decreasing our carbon emissions.
1) Use reusable containers and bottles: Single-use plastic bottles contribute significantly to the emissions, with a million plastic bottles brought around the world every minute. Make use of one of the 26 water refill stations on UFV campuses by filling up your personal water bottle. Traditional single-use coffee cups aren’t typically recyclable or compostable due to their inner plastic lining. Using a reusable thermos can solve this issue. Tim Hortons and Fairgrounds provide a small discount to students who bring their own mugs. When ordering food on the go, bring your own reusable container and ask for your meals to be put in them. This eliminates the demand for single-use food storage containers.
2) Purchase second-hand textbooks: Every semester, each student produces an average of nine pounds of CO2 equivalent emissions per new textbook purchased. Try purchasing used books through the UFV Bookstore, Books2Go, or browsing the UFV Textbook Exchange Facebook page. Be sure to re-sell your textbooks at the end of each semester as well to keep up with the demand and earn back your cash.
3) Digital pay parking apps: Skip the lines before class, and skip the paper receipts. In the U.S.A. alone, receipts produce 686 million pounds of waste each year. Download the hangTag app, and pay for parking at UFV conveniently from your smartphone. Say no to receipts whenever possible, because contrary to popular belief, receipts are coated in BPA and are not recyclable.
4) Switch up your hygiene products: Stop using disposable products such as razors, cotton rounds, and menstrual products and switch to reusable options. Invest in reusable products like the Rockwell Razor, washable bamboo cotton rounds, bamboo toothbrushes, the Diva Cup, LunaPads, or Thinx panties. These products will last a lifetime, and eliminate the need for these daily, single-use products.
5) Try paperless notes: Deforestation of tropical forests alone results in the release of 4.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year into our atmosphere. Switch to note-taking solely on your computer. If you must use a traditional notebook, try a reusable Rocketbook notebook. You can wipe the notebook clean and reuse it each semester and you can even scan your notes and upload them onto your phone.
Illustration: Kayt Hine/The Cascade
Sydney is a BA English major, creative writing student, who has been a content contributor for The Cascade and is now the Opinion editor. In 7th grade, she won $100 in a writing contest but hasn’t made an earning from writing since. In the meantime, she is hoping that her half-written novels will write themselves, be published, and help pay the bills.
