How Can A University Student Reduce The Amount They Pollute

How Can A University Student Reduce The Amount They Pollute

INTRODUCTION

We as individual people contribute to the pollution of our planet in two ways. The primary way is our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including things such as using electricity, cooking with gas, and transportation. The secondary way is the indirect CO2 emissions from the daily products we use which include the food and clothes we buy. It has become clear that we can contribute to the pollution of the Earth by doing our regular everyday actions.

As a University student, how is it possible to decrease the amount you pollute? This is the question this essay will answer. Many university students do not take into account the amount they pollute the Earth both in their own homes and at their University campus. This essay will target the everyday things University students do while at home, shopping, the transportation they use, and things they do at University that cause pollution. It will then give recommendations on how to improve or change the things they are doing that cause pollution. Of course, it may be difficult for some University students to completely change the way they do things on a day to day basis, these are just recommendations that could lower the amount they are polluting. This essay will also give some recommendations to how Universities can help students lower the amount they pollute.

HOME

At home there are many choices you can make and different ways of doing things to lower the amount you pollute. The main things that we use in our home that cause pollution are electricity and water. When we use electricity we are not actually polluting, it is when the electricity we use is created that it causes pollution. Most electricity is created by burning coal and oil, which emits harmful carbon dioxide into the ozone layer. An alternative to oil and coal is nuclear energy, but it produces harmful waste. Other more appealing alternatives include solar, wind, and aquatic energy. However, when building structures to capture solar, wind and aquatic energy it requires a lot of energy from another energy source, such as coal and oil, and they can also obstruct nature because of the amount of space required to produce enough electricity to supply one city using these methods. In the end, all energy sources used to create electricity for us cause pollution in some way. Thus, if we use less electricity less electricity has to be created and pollution is decreased. There are many ways we can reduce our use of electricity. You can place your desks and tables by a window so natural lighting from the sun can keep it bright during the day, make sure to turn off light switches at night when you are not in the room, turn off the television when you are not watching it, turn off your computer when you are not using it, and unplug charges when you are not using them.

Another way we use electricity without knowing it is by using water in our homes. There is a lot of water on Earth but not all of it is clean or suitable for drinking. Most of us use more water than we should and this is a great problem because when we use clean water to clean our cars or water our plants it is no longer available as clean drinkable water, therefore more clean water has to be made available. However, the clean water we use may not have always been clean. The water usually comes from a water-plant that purifies the water, removing bacteria and other contaminants. In order to purify the water they must use chemicals and electricity. As we already know electricity causes pollution. So the less water we use the less electricity is required and we reduce the amount of pollution we produce. You can reduce the amount of water you use by doing things such as taking shorter showers, turning off the tap when brushing your teeth or soaping your hands, and using rain water to water your plants.

Other than our use of electricity and water, we also pollute by creating a large amount of waste that needs to be disposed of. When waste is not disposed of properly it can cause pollution. Electronics are one of the main causes of pollution from waste. Many electronics have batteries and other materials with chemicals in them that when not disposed of properly can damage the environment greatly. If you are going to get rid of an electronic device do not just put it into your normal garbage, bring it somewhere to be disposed of properly. We should also ask ourselves whether or not something we are throwing out can be reused. A great way to lower pollution and save money is to reuse. If you look online you can find many ways to reuse materials you might be throwing into the garbage. We should also recycle materials that are recyclable such as plastic bottles. To make plastic requires oil and electricity and it takes hundreds of years to decompose. Thus, we should recycle our plastic to reduce the pollution it causes by being manufactured and to avoid it’s destruction on our natural ecosystems by being littered.

Shopping

When we are buying food and clothes we can also pollute or support a company causing pollution. When we buy products we should buy local, natural products rather than products from another country or food grown with the use of chemicals. When you buy products from another country you should know that it has arrived after a great journey. The product was

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