Green is totally the new Black!!!

by

Britney Frei

            What’s the first thing you think of when you hear someone say “Go Green!!” Recycling? Carbon foot print? Renewable energy? These are the common responses that you would expect to hear when asking this question. So I put it to the test! I went out and asked my neighbors, roommate, family, and some friends. Some of the answers I got were: little green men, lettuce, Green lights, the packers, trees, the green recycle triangle, efficient energy, gas mileage, recycling, and nature.  None of the answers I got surprised me!

            So, putting the little green men aside, what does going green really mean? Does it mean you have to love trees and animals? Maybe become a vegetarian? Not at all! Going green just means that you become environmentally aware of how you live your life. For example, you might be more willing to recycle a plastic bottle because you know that bottle will be reused instead of sitting for years in a landfill. According to the EPA in America alone we throw away about 28 billion bottles and jars a year.

Recycling is a great way to go green. It is relatively easy and does not cost you a ton of money. You can recycle pretty much anything. Your car tires can be ground up and turned into tracks for schools to use for sports or for playgrounds to replace having to cut down thousands of trees to make woodchips. Now a days there are even places you can bring your TV, computer, and other electronics to be correctly recycled. These places are easily found, all you have to do is go online and type in ‘recycling electronics in (your home town)’. Sometimes your city might even give you a list of places to go to recycle your old stuff. I searched for Stevens Point and was given one for Portage County. One of the places I found interesting was Best Buy. Best Buy has a $10 fee for up to three items per person per day. In return you get a $10 dollar Best Buy gift card. There is one downside to recycling; some items require a fee when they are dropped off. Some times the price is not too high and like Best Buy you could get something in return.

Another way to go green is to lower your carbon foot print. According to the Global Footprint Network, a carbon foot print is the amount of carbon a person or group is emitting in to the air in their daily life. Everything we do affects our foot print. There is no way to eliminate our foot print but there are things we can do to reduce it so it’s not as big. As talked about before, recycling is one way. Other was you can reduce your footprint is: public transportation, energy saving features in your home, energy saving habits (turning lights off when you leave a room), and even eating local. 

One of my favorite websites to go to is called myfootprint.org. This website has everything you need to know about how to go green and reduce your carbon footprint. I have found it a great resource in my going green life style. Not only does it have great information about going green it also has a test to see how big your footprint is. After taking this test it will tell you how many earths are needed to sustain everyone on the planet if everyone lived the way you do. When I took the test it told me that we would need five and a half earths.

I will leave you with this. Myfootprint.com states that at the moment with the way we are living we need one and a half earths to sustain our way of living. As you know we don’t have an extra earth lying around to use. So something has to be done. This is where going green comes in. I challenge you to go on and take the test and see how big your footprint is and think about if there is anything you can do to lower it and maybe say you are joining the trend and going green!

References

http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/solidwasterecyclingfacts.htm

http://www.co.portage.wi.us/solidwaste/pdf/Portage%20County%20-%20LOCATIONS%20FOR%20ELECTRONICS%20RECYCLING.pdf

http://myfootprint.org

http://www.footprintnetwork.org