University Housing

Involvement

Bulletin Board Ideas

PAPER RECYCLING BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to explain how paper is recycled and to emphasize the importance of paper recycling.

Topics to consider in your research:

1. Water and air pollution

2. Energy costs

3. The de-inking process

4. Landfill use

CARPOOLING BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to help residents understand the impact of driving on the environment as well as to give them local resources on how to carpool.

Topics to consider in your research:

· Air pollution

· Gas prices

· Carpooling on Facebook

· Local carpooling resources

CONSUMING GREEN BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to inform residents about how to be a “greener” consumer

Topics to consider in your research:

· Why should I be a green consumer? If everyone consumed the way we do in the US we would need 3 planet earths! Our contribution to climate change doesn’t just come from our travel, our electricity use and our heating. In fact almost everything we do in our lives involves products or services that have consumed energy to be made or transported, thus emitting carbon dioxide and causing climate change. We can have a huge positive impact by aiming to live and consume in a more sustainable way. That’s more we won’t just make a difference by our own lifestyles, but also from the influence we have on others.

· Don’t but things you don’t really need or want! Most of us have far more “stuff” than we ever need. Every time you buy a product you’re responsible for the emissions due to its manufacture, packaging, and transport. So only buy stuff you really need or will actually use.

· Buy local food to avoid unnecessary “food miles”! When you buy food from overseas, you’re responsible for the food miles incurred by shipping that product to the US. Why not reduce your impact on climate change by buying local produce instead? It tastes better too!

· Buy organic or grow your own! Conventional intensive farming methods use 25-50% more energy than organic farming per unit of product. Buying organic or growing your own significantly reduces your impact on climate change.

· Make an effort to recycle! We live in a throw-away culture, but if packaging, plastic, and other items can be recycled that reduces the energy needed for manufacturers to get the materials to make new items. It saves things ending up in landfills too.

· Re-use rather than throwing away! Every time you throw something away it gets buried in the ground and energy needs to be used to make another one. Save energy by keeping and re-using packages and bags more than once.

· Give unwanted items to charity! If you don’t want something and it can’t be recycled, don’t simply throw it away. If you give it to a charity shop someone else can use it. That saves on unnecessary new products being made and energy wasted. There is even a charity drive at the end of the semester right in your hall!

· Use refill packs! A great way to reduce the packaging for the products you use is to buy refill packs for items like soap. They use less packaging and therefore have lower carbon emissions from manufacturing.

· Buy less packaged food! The more packaging your food has the higher the energy that was required to make it. Try to buy produce and good with less packaging and send a signal to manufacturers that we don’t need that kind of waste.

· Drink tap water instead of bottled water! Tap water is clean, fresh, and free, so why buy expensive bottled water? Energy is consumed for each bottle created, filled, and transported, leading to unnecessary carbon emissions and yet more plastic landfill sites.

CONSUMING GREEN BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to inform residents about how to be a “greener” consumer

Topics to consider in your research:

10 WAYS TO LIVE GREEN BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to teach practical ways to make a difference for the environment, inspiring action.

Topics to consider in your research:

1. Recycle everything, especially paper: Think about how many pieces of paper you go through in a semester. There are your class notes, your scrap copies, your term papers, your daily school newspapers, and assorted stud you’ve printed out from the internet. It all adds up. Look for a paper in the recycle bin on campus—you might find one near a residence hall or large classroom building. Recycle other items as well, including cans, bottles, and cardboard boxes.

2. Use your printer wisely: You can save paper by printing on both sides of the page. Many professors don’t mind if you turn in a paper like this—just ask first. Save pages that you’ve printed and use the backs to print out drafts and other things you don’t have to turn in. In additions, many printers have multiple settings for print quality. Use the high quality setting for things that have to look nice, but use the low quality setting for things that don’t. This will save ink. While you’re at it, consider cutting down on things you print out. Do you really need to print that webpage or can you just bookmark it?

3. Limit the use of disposable cups and plates: If you’re moving into your first off-campus apartment, it can be tempting to buy disposable cups and plates to save time. This adds up to a lot of waste and money. But yourself some inexpensive plates and wash them. You can do this when you live in the halls as well. Many halls have a kitchen, and if yours doesn’t, wash dishes in the bathroom sink.

4. Limit the use of paper napkins: Since college students eat a good deal of fast food, napkins can add up. It’s good you want to be clean, but one napkin will probably do the trick. Be sure to take only what you need.

5. Use compact florescent light bulbs: These bulbs cost a little bit more, but they last longer and ultimately save you money. If you live in a hall, get yourself a lamp and screw in one of these bulbs. Lamp light can be more pleasant than overhead lighting, and with the compact florescent bulbs, you’re still being environmentally responsible.

6. Walk, bike, and limit your use of a car: Most campuses are very pedestrian friendly, and many college towns offer good public transportation and bike paths. Ask yourself if you really need a car as a college student. Because, if you can get by without one, you can save a good deal of money on gas, repairs, and over-priced student car insurance. If you do own a car, try to use it as little as you can.

7. Buy green: Buy recycled products whenever you can, especially paper. Buy environmentally safe cleaning products as well. Some of these products cost more, but many don’t or the price difference is negligible.

8. Carry a water bottle: Think of how many bottles of water get consumed on a campus every day. Save waste and money and carry a refillable bottle.

9. Use refillable binders instead of notebooks: This is a simple way to save waste. If you want to save your notes after the semester is over, take them out of the binder and staple them. Or, you can go electronic and take all of your notes on a laptop.

10. Buy used clothing: Lots of students do this to save money, but it’s also a great thing to do for the environment. Reusing clothes decreases the use of resources to make clothing and puts a dent in the problem of worldwide sweatshops.

EASY WAYS TO GO GREEN BULLETIN BOARDS

Purpose: to inform residents of simple ways they can reduce their impact on the earth.

Topics to consider in your research:

1. Ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle

2. Paper use

3. Energy savings

4. Laptop vs. PC

5. Consumption habits

6. Going organic

7. Replacing 1 incandescent light bulb with a compact florescent light bulb can save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year

8. Use reusable shopping bags- 420,000 gallons of oil are required to manufacture 100 million bags; 21 billion plastic bags are used every year in the United States. Many stores will give you a credit on your bill for using a reusable bag.

9. Print Double Sided- for every ton of paper made, about 80,000 gallons of water are used. Each year, the US uses 4 million tons of copy paper

10. If you leave the water on while you brush your teeth, approximately 3 gallons of water are used.

11. Go Reusable! In 2006, Americans spent $11 billion on water bottles then tossed over 22 billion empty plastic bottles in the trash. It take 1.5 million barrels of oil to make 1 years worth of plastic bottles. It takes about 700 years for plastic bottles to begin to decompose.

12. Unplug chargers when not in useDrink tap water, seriously, there’s nothing wrong with it! Average savings buying bottled water is $500 a year. That’s a semester’s worth of text books!

13. The US has 3091 active landfills and over 10000 old municipal landfills.

14. Recycled plastic is made into plastic lumber, clothing, flower pots, insulation for sleeping bags, clothing, ski jackets, car bumpers, and more.

15. The steel from more than 84% of appliances (39 million) recycled last year yielded enough steel to build approximately 160 football stadiums.

16. Every year the US fills enough garbage trucks to form a line that would stretch from the earth halfway to the moon.

17. Buy items in the largest size you can to avoid excess packaging. Buying larger sized items often costs less per ounce.

18. Buy rechargeable batteries to avoid throwing away batteries and packaging. You only have to buy a few packages of batteries over several years when you go rechargeable.

19. Just say no to receipts at gas stations and ATMs. If everyone said no to these receipts the paper saved would circle the earth 15 times.

20. Carpool! It reduces emissions and makes the ride more fun for everyone.

21. Take a recycle mug to the Union. You save on waste and get a discount on drinks. We throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups per year. 500 years from now those cups will still be in a landfill.

22. Eat less meat.

BATHROOM CONSERVATION BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to encourage awareness of bathroom practices and how they can be changed to lower an individual’s impact on the earth.

Topics to consider in your research:

· Water reduction

· Paper reduction

· Energy consumption

RECYCLING 101 BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to explain the benefits of recycling and teach how to do it properly.

Topics to consider in your research:

· What is recyclable in the Residence Halls?

· Where are the recycling locations in your building

· Recycling 1 ton of paper saves: 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, 7000 gallons of water, and 60 pounds of air pollutants

· Recycling 1 aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours

· 5 recycled soda bottles yield enough fiber for one extra large t-shirt

· Recycling is a way of preserving our natural resources. Recycling helps reduce pollution, saves energy, and reduces demand for virgin materials such as timber, silica, iron ore, and bauxite.

SUSTAINABLE LAUNDRY BULLETIN BOARD

Purpose: to teach residents how to do laundry more sustainably as well as inspiring action to change laundry habits.

Topics to consider in your research:

· Water and energy facts

· Try to do laundry at nights (10PM-9AM). Electricity is cheaper in these off-peak hours

· When using laundry detergent or fabric softener, don’t fill to the brim but use the recommended fill line.

· Washing dark clothes in cold water saved both on water and energy while it helps your clothes to keep their colors.

· Separate your clothes and dry similar types of clothes together. For example, lightweight synthetics dry more quickly than bath towels or other heavy fiber clothing.