Eco Tips to Greening Your College Move

Taiga Company   
August 2nd, 2010

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Packing for college can be a lot of work.  In the face of the many pre-college activities, it’s easy to fall into old habits and fall amiss to living a sustainable lifestyle.  With a little planning, the move to college can still embrace eco awareness and keep you on course with your personal sustainability plan.

In our eco friendly consulting, we advise clients to employ the sustainability concepts “reduce, reuse, and recycle” whenever possible.  Moving to college offers a great way to revisit old moving habits and replace them with choices that get the job done as well as reduce the impact on the environment.  Here are some tips:

• Reduce the packing load by minimizing the items you bring with you.
• Make use of your empty suitcases to pack up items and accessories.
• Look for used boxes on Craig’s list, at local liquor stores and at grocery stores.
• Put storage crates from around the house or boxes used for bulk purchases to good use.
• Ask neighbors and friends for bubble wrap, cardboard boxes, padded envelopes and other packing materials instead of purchasing them new.
• Use newspaper and towels, which make great packaging material.
• Consider the use of a greenbox.
• For new purchases, make them at the destination to avoid additional transportation cost of moving it.  Good sources include: Goodwill and Salvation Army stores.
• Evaluate your moving options: is a hybrid car or biodiesel-powered truck available?
• Once moved in, take eco action to reduce moving waste by re-listing boxes and material on Craig’s list or Freecycle and recycle the boxes beyond repair.

Keep in mind that while at college you’re building a new life of sorts for yourself.  From life-long friendships and relationships to jobs, classes and internships, the college years of a person’s life are sure to be memorable.  Personal sustainability can touch every area of your life and usually encourages others to become involved.  As a green living consultant, I can’t think of a better time to begin a lifetime of good habits embracing eco awareness and eco actions.

This story originally appeared at the Taiga Company Blog

Front photo: Ben+Sam

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