Thursday 20-04-2023 - 16:23

Living in a more sustainable way doesn’t mean that it has to be expensive or boring. Here are some top tips that you can easily adopt to help you live a greener lifestyle at Uni!

1.    Air dry your clothes

Because air-drying your clothes saves 0.2 tonnes of carbon emissions a year per person (Bruce-Lockhart, 2021) and helps to reduce climate impact by 67% (CSU, n.d).

Using a washing line outdoors in the summer or investing in an indoor clothes airer that can be used all year round in your accommodation and could last you till third year, are two, inexpensive and sustainable options for drying your clothes at uni. A cheap clothes airer could cost you about £20, which was also around the amount of 7 loads of drying when I lived at St Davids Student Roost last year. So, by air drying your clothes you can save money in the long run and reduce your carbon footprint. 

2.    Reduce your food waste

Shopping and cooking for a singular person can be difficult at uni and typically creates a lot of unnecessary food waste. 

Creating a meal plan for the week is effective as you can create an accurate shopping list of the ingredients and the amounts that you will need, so that you don’t over buy. When creating your meal plan consider if there are any dishes that you can batch-cook, and eat the for lunch or dinner the day after. You could also freeze the other batches if you don’t want the same dish two days in a row!

In the supermarket make sure to check use by dates so that you only buy amounts that you will use before the items expire. Also, look for frozen alternatives of fruit and veg so that you can stock these up in your freezer and add them to smoothies and curries whenever, without the worry that they will go off.

Search for fruit and veg that is oddly shaped and doesn’t adhere to cosmetic standards. These products are cheaper and taste the exact same. 

3.    Skip the fast food after going out

Surprisingly, this tip could be the best one. Skip the lengthy queues on wind street for kebabs and chips after a night and head home to cook the frozen chips (or hash browns) that you bought earlier at the supermarket for a fraction of the price. Fast food restaurants are notorious for having a high carbon footprint and using a lot of plastics to package their food. So, not only will you be saving money but this step can also help you save our planet.

4.    Shop secondhand instead of buying new clothes

Buy second hand clothes from charity shops, vintage markets or apps like Vinted when shopping. Charity shopping can be a fun activity to do with your friends and you can find some real bargains - YMCA is my personal favourite as everything is £1! Buying things that are second hand can help save the planet as you are reusing resources and extending a garment’s life. 

Megan Kane
Sustainable Food
(Swansea)