Green Living Guide 2006

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Green Living Guide
Sustainability at WWC
What You Can Do
On-Campus Resources
Guide to Local Businesses
Campus Greening Crew

Interact

Jessica Wooten
Recycling/Solid Waste

Address:
WWC CPO 6216
PO Box 9000
Asheville, NC 28815-9000

Phone: 828.771.2035

Email: jwooten@warren-wilson.edu

Purchasing and Packaging

Product Lifetime
Consider how long a product will last before you buy something. If it is disposable, try to find something that will be useable for a longer period of time (i.e. razors, dishes, coffee cups). This reduces waste and packaging.

Mugs
Bring your mug when you go get coffee or tea! At Sage Café on campus you save 50% by bringing your own mug. Many other local coffee shops also give discounts for bringing your own mug. Also, bring your mugs to Gladfelter and Cowpie. This saves you money and reduces the amount of paper, plastic, and Styrofoam cups in the landfill.

Grocery Bags
Bring your own bags when you go shopping at any store. This will reduce wasted plastic and paper bags by reusing the ones you already have. Also, French Broad Food Cooperative donates money to local nonprofit organizations every time you bring your own bag!

Bulk Foods Buy in Bulk
Many of the local grocery stores have bulk sections where you can buy the exact quantity you need. This also reduces packaging because you are not buying a box or wrapper along with the product.

Electronics and Appliances
Electronics with liquid crystal displays (LCD’s) as opposed to cathode ray tube displays (CRT’s) are much more energy efficient in computers and televisions.

Light bulbs
Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are an excellent green alternative to regular incandescent bulbs found in most lamps in dorms. CFLs use 66% less energy and last about 10 times longer. This saves both you and the college money. Starting this fall, one CFL will be provided per student room for personal use. CFLs can be purchased anywhere that you would find incandescents.

Computers
If you plan on purchasing a computer for school, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Laptops use 80% less energy than desktops.
Buying products with the energy star label means that it has been manufactured to be more energy efficient than products without the label.
If you have or plan to buy a desktop, remember that flat panels also use less energy than regular monitors

Computer monitors use lots of energy. Those screen savers with pictures and moving shapes use more energy than your regular desktop background, so turn your screensaver off and use the energy saving low power modes you can adjust on the control panel.

Turn your computer off at night. Turning it off and on uses as much energy as leaving it idle for 16 minutes.

Televisions
Most dorms on campus have TVs in the common room. Many of these have VCRs and/or DVD players available for student use. TVs use the most energy of any household appliance, so not having one in your dorm room can greatly reduce energy use. Also, there are plenty of other things to do on campus and in Asheville besides watching television—go for a hike, read a book in Malaprops bookstore/cafe, ride the bus, or get coffee in Sage café.

Refrigerators
All dorm kitchens have at least one large fridge for students to keep food in. However, many students still choose to have a small fridge in their dorm room for personal food. If you make this choice, talk to your roommate before you get to school so you do not end up with two micro-fridges. These refrigerators are highly inefficient for the storage capacity they have, using up to 4 times as much energy per volume than normal size refrigerators. Again, look for Energy Star fridges, and make sure you read the label. There is a scale of energy efficiency on the Energy Star tag that will tell you how efficient the appliance is.

Standby Energy
This is the energy used even when appliances and electronics are not in use. It can account for up to 10% of energy use and is an easy way to reduce electricity use. By unplugging electronics when not in use, you can prevent standby energy from being used. Energy Star appliances also help reduce standby energy. You can plug your appliances into a power strip and turn the power strip off to prevent standby energy from being used.

Water Use
All the showers in dorms have low flow shower heads with water savers. The water savers are buttons on the shower head that you can press to turn the water off when you are lathering, shampooing, etc. They are easy to use and can make a big difference in water use.

School/Office Supplies

Paper
Buy reams of paper with high percentages of post-consumer waste. The higher the percent of post consumer waste, the better because it means that more paper is being recycled to make the product.

Check to make sure the paper was not bleached with chlorine, a very toxic chemical that leaches into the environment. Paper is probably the most used supply for any college or university. Here at Wilson, most professors realize this and encourage the use of one-sided paper (paper that has already been printed on one side) for assignments, papers, and lab reports. You can get free one-sided paper from computer labs, the print shop, or at the recycling warehouse.

Use one-sided paper for notes. There are paper recycling bins in all classroom buildings where you can find some before class.

Printer Ink
Recycled ink toner cartridges are available at office supply stores. This utilizes existing products and reduces the need for new production.

Notebooks
Recycled notebooks made by the recycling crew are sold in the bookstore. These are made from old book covers and one-sided paper. Also, one subject and five subject spiral notebooks are available in the bookstore and at office supply stores anywhere.

Cleaning Supplies

Laundry Soap
Buy detergent that is phosphate free. These soaps are easy to find in any store where you would normally shop and are much better for the environment! Detergents are released with sewage water and when phosphates are present, they can be put into the environment where they poison aquatic life.

Cleaners
The school provides green cleaning supplies for dorms. These are available for your use should you need them for your room. If you want to bring your own, look for ammonia free (non-toxic), biodegradable, not animal tested. These products are not as harmful to the environment when they leech into water and soil.