Student life without mum and dad can be hard, but it can also have a major impact on the environment. The takeaways, food waste, unrecycled plastics and the endless taxi journies all have their impact on the earth. However, learning to live a little greener whilst enjoying your independence can be easier than you think and can even save you some spending money. Student life can still be fun whilst looking after the environment.

Go Electronic

Today, university students don’t need to be encouraged to embrace technology. Everyone is using technology 24/7 however, all day every day, but not always to their best use. Student life revolves around technology meaning a laptop or tablet is usually readily available. A laptop or tablet is an endless notebook that will never run out, which is a great way to help the environment, reduce paper waste and help conserve trees. Using a laptop will also be a lot cheaper in the long run after you take into consideration how many notebooks, textbooks, printing and stationery you will end up using over the next few years.

There is, however, one thing to bear in mind when it comes to upping your technology usage. We all know that student life depends on the accessibility and use of technology, but if it’s not in use, switch it off. The same goes for plugs, lights and chargers, conserving energy like this is a great way to help the environment.

Live for Reusable

Whether it’s the bags you use when you do your weekly shop or the water bottle you take to lectures, reusing and recycling everyday products is a free and easy way to make student life more sustainable. If you think you could use something again, hold onto it; small steps like reusing plastics and non-recyclables really helps out mother nature and even makes student life that little bit cheaper.

Student life is also about making the student loan stretch, that’s why it’s important to buy less and borrow more. Borrowing, making do and mending are also great ways to make your money stretch and protect the environment. By swapping things like clothes with friends and sharing things such as electronics and DVD’s means you save a whole lot of money and effort as well as helping the environment by cutting down on waste.

Eat Green

Although it might be difficult to hear, student life doesn’t need to revolve around takeaways. Not only are takeaways and fast food unhealthy and expensive, but they also use a lot of packaging material that goes unrecycled or isn’t recyclable in the first place.

If you want to go that extra green step, cutting out meat is a great way to help the environment and make student life more interesting. Livestock rearing adds large amounts of greenhouse gases into the environment so cutting back or cutting out meat does not only do good for the animals but the environment too.

Travel Eco

Most universities are city centre located, making travel cheap and easy. Taxis and public transport are always readily available but aren’t always the best solution for the environment in terms of the carbon footprint they create. Make your student life more sustainable by walking or biking your way around the city. It’s cheap, it’s easy and it does your health good. Most cities now offer bike schemes which are cheap and easy to use so you don’t even have to worry about buying or storing a bike anywhere. Student life can be sustainable, it’s just about learning to make the best of what is around you, especially when it comes to transport.

There are hundreds of ways to make student life greener, easier and cheaper, it’s just about knowing how and where to find the tools and solutions to make it happen. Even the smallest of student life changes make the largest of differences, it’s up to you to make the changes.  At Paguro we repurpose and recycle a variety of materials in ethical and environmentally friendly ways. Our vision is to bring together a collection of the world’s finest upcycled products. Go online to find out more about how we repurpose a range of materials in desirable and elegant ways. https://paguroupcycle.com