1. Do you ever do all the reading for your classes? Don’t print articles you won’t read.
2. Unplug your cell phone, lamps and coffee maker when they aren’t in use. It saves you money for beer, not utilities. If you don’t pay utilities yet, it just saves money for beer.
3. Feeling rotten for not being greener? Start composting. Bartell’s sells kitchen scrap buckets, Target sells the plastic bins and Home Depot sells the worms. Yum.
4. Instead of using aerosol cans (like Febreeze), use reed diffusers. No electricity, no non-recyclables.
5. Reuse plastic bags from the store. If you and your four housemates each go to the store once a week and get an average of four bags per trip, that’s 16 bags a week, roughly 360 plastic bags a semester.
6. Don’t turn up the heat too high or leave lights on. The Eskimo look is in, and it gives you a legitimate reason to drink on a Tuesday night. Drinking by candlelight is even classier.
7. Tacoma Power is offering free energy saving kits that include two efficient showerheads, two faucet aerators, and three compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Visit https://www.tacomapowersaveenergy.com/ to get a kit for your house.
8. Don’t print receipts at the ATM if you’re just going to throw them away two seconds later.
9. Ask friends and housemates before doing laundry. Running a large or extra large load instead of a small one saves energy (and quarters if you live in the dorms).
10. Recycle The Trail after you finish reading it!