Big Red Goes Green
In the common room, there is a recycled soda bottle repurposed as a hanging planter. On every floor, there is a green compost box. In every bathroom, there are towel hooks. With over forty students living in the dorm, Merrill Hall has implemented multiple methods to minimize unnecessary waste to increase sustainability and to encourage other dorms to adopt this mentality.
When she first came to Exeter, Safa Firas, an upper in Merrill Hall, noticed the improvements that could easily be made to increase sustainability in her dorm. Merrill started by closely monitoring dorm light usage, then focusing on reducing paper towel usage by hanging up hooks in bathrooms for hand towels. Though the towel hanging system was a success at first, less and less people continued to use it. On top of implementing these systems, the significance of doing so must be emphasized in the future.
In 2013, the United States alone wasted 254 million tons of trash, 30 percent to 40 percent of which were food waste, contributing to the country’s reputation of being the number one waste producer. Merrill’s compost bins are an inexpensive way to help nullify this problem.
Composting is about breaking down organic waste, such as a food or plants, to be used for something we already need, such as fertilizer. The dorm compost bins are then emptied out in the school’s collective compost pile to be used for agriculture. By implementing compost bins in all dorms, we can easily magnify the impact it has on the environment.
A Zero Waste life can start right here in the dorms. By implementing these inexpensive yet effective systems, such as composting, in all dorms, we can contribute to waste reduction and take small steps toward solving the United States’ problem as the number one waste producer in the world.
To see the effect of repurposing waste, we only need to look at our local farms. In contrast to monoculture farms, polyculture farms grow multiple crops in the same area to imitate a naturally occuring ecosystem. Increasing biodiversity in these farms allows natural resources to be used more effectively by creating a self-sustaining cycle, which in turn increases the yield rate of these farms.
Animal waste can be used as fertilizer for crops, and different farm animals can take advantage of all food sources. At Polyface Farm in Virginia, for example, farmer Joel Salatin rotates his farm animals through the same field, allowing other farm animals, such as chickens or sheep, to reach vegetation or grubs that cows merely graze over.
The idea of imitating a self-sustaining ecosystem can also be applied to all of our daily lives. Zero Waste is a popular new movement spreading across the country. In addition to recycling and reusing products, its goal is to reduce waste by changing businesses’ infrastructure when distributing products with the help of more supporters.
Though switching to a Zero Waste lifestyle does require adapting a new mindset and becoming more aware of your environmental impact, you do not need to live in a home specifically designed for reusable energy.
A Zero Waste life can start right here in the dorms. By implementing these inexpensive yet effective systems, such as composting, in all dorms, we can contribute to waste reduction and take small steps toward solving the United States’ problem as the number one waste producer in the world.