Gone are the days where people give homemade cupcakes or cookies and handwritten poems. Now Valentine’s Day is full of candy (especially chocolate) produced unsustainably and under terrible working conditions and store bought cards, stuffed animals, flowers, and trinkets that are either lost or thrown out by the end of the month.


The amount of waste and harm done by Valentine’s Day alone is incredibly depressing. But sending a love note or kind words doesn’t have to be. Instead of going out and buying a card, flowers, or chocolate, why not show the person you love them by making something yourself? 


There are thousands of ideas out there for homemade Valentines, but I have limited the list to sustainable, cheap things you can make last minute (it’s tomorrow if you have forgotten):


1. A love note: Keep it plain and simple. Handwrite your note on a nice piece of paper (preferably recycled). You can cut it into a heart, but the message is really what counts.

2. Create an electronic Valentine: If you are great with computer creation tools, then make something incredible and send it or print it for your Valentine. You can make desktop backgrounds, pictures, messages, whatever you would like.


3. Bake! Who doesn’t like a homemade treat?


4. Entertain: if you are able to sing, dance, or play an instrument, why not do so in the name of love (or friendship)?


5. Do something nice: instead of giving someone something, do something nice for them.


6. Music: if you can’t make your own, you can send them a playlist or a few songs that explain how you feel or that remind you of them.


7. Make dinner or some other meal: What really counts is showing that you care, so even if you aren’t the best cook the effort will be appreciated. 


8. Just say it: Valentines are about saying how you really feel. There is no need for a card as long as you say everything you wanted to and you make the recipient feel special.


9. Leave notes: Leave messages or hints on mirrors or on small slips of paper around the house. A dry erase marker will write on mirrors and come off easily. You can leave your loved one little notes all around.


10. Be creative! Don’t be afraid to do something you have never seen before (or copy what you have seen in your favorite movie). Just remember to know your audience and keep in mind what they like. 

When I grocery shop I often choose what I will buy based on the packaging, and not in the way most people do. I don’t care what color it is or if it has an attractive image on it, instead I choose by what has the least amount of packaging and the most amount of recyclable material.


That is why when I found these chips in a paper bag (completely recyclable) with no plastic in sight I got incredibly excited and decided to buy them. 

But when I brought them home and opened them I found a plastic bag hidden inside. So instead of buying a bag of chips that I could have recycled when I was done eating them, I bought a bag that has twice as much packaging as chips that are only in a plastic bag. They got my hopes up that the store was finally moving towards more sustainable packaging material. Looks like I will be writing a letter to the store asking for sustainable packaging. 

This right here is why my e-reader will never replace my library. Nothing beats the feel or the smell of an old book. It’s been stepped on 
(based on the wonderful shoe print on the front cover), written in, spilled on, and read by who knows how many other people (It was first stamped back in ’89, which means the first person to read it did so before I was born. I know that’s not that long ago, but it is to me). It has that wonderful musty book smell that makes my heart swoon, before it makes me sneeze.

I got “Silent Spring” from the university library a few weeks ago, even though it had been on my to do list for at least a year. Every environmental studies class always come back to Rachel Carson and the role she played in starting the environmental movement. It seemed like one of those books you just have to read.

Even though she wrote about pesticide use that was happening 50 years ago, her writing and criticism were still incredibly relevant today. Although her examples were outdated and we may no longer spray everything from plants to our children with DDT, her criticism of our lack of caution with chemicals still rings true. 


“Silent Spring” is one of those books that will always be relevant in modern society in one way or another. Even though this is not a book I would ever say everyone should read, if you are interested in pesticides, the organic farming movement, or the history of the environmental movement, I would highly recommend her book. For everyone else, I highly recommend finding an old book on something you are interested in. Not only will you gain a new perspective on something you thought you knew well, you will have the pleasure of reading an old, well-loved book.

Some days I feel more like a Google search engine than a human being. Friends, family, coworkers and classmates pester me with constant questions: “How do I wash this stain out of my shirt?” “Do you think my finger is broken?” “What is Shingles? How do I spell…” But the most common question I get asked across all groups is “Can I recycle this?”

I have to say, although I enjoy answering all of the questions, this one I never get tried of. Yes, it would be nice if people could remember that the cereal box they asked me about yesterday is the same concept for all cardboard boxes, but at the same time I happy that they are 1. thinking about recycling and 2. taking the time to figure out how to do it right.

It shocks me how little my roommates and coworkers in particular know about recycling. But it’s not just them, across campus recycling is a struggle. Students don’t understand what they can and cannot recycle, and more often than not students give up and simply put everything in the trash.

So here it is Santa Clara students (and most other people), your guide to recycling:

Bins:
In Santa Clara and at SCU all recycling goes into one major bin to be sorted at a facility. This means you can lump all of your recyclables together and place them in the dumpster marked “recycling.”

Plastics:
All plastics with 1-7 on them in the arrows are recyclable. You can usually find this symbol on the bottom of the item.

Glass:
All glass, unless from a broken window or mirror, is recyclable.

Paper:
All paper, colored or plain white, written on or drawn on, whatever it may be, is recyclable. This even includes old books that are too trashed to be donated and the school refuses to buy back from you.

Cardboard:
All cardboard free of grease or wax can be recycled.

Aluminium and Tin:
Best if rinsed, just place it in the bin. This includes canned goods, soda cans, ect.

Don’t’s of recycling:
1. Do not put your recycling in a trash bag or a plastic bag and then place it in the bin. These bags cannot be recycled (if they have a number on them that signifies they are recyclable they are not actually recyclable at a regular recycling facility and you need to return them to the grocery store for proper recycling).

2. Pizza boxes cannot be recycled. They can be composted, but any cardboard with grease or wax on it cannot be recycled.

3. Water bottle lids cannot be recycled.

4. Just because it’s made out of plastic doesn’t mean it’s recyclable. That plastic chair or plastic container cannot be recycled unless it has a number 1-7 inside the triangular arrows on it.

5. Toilet paper, tissues, dryer sheets, and paper towels are not recyclable. If you couldn’t turn it in with your term paper on it, it’s not the “paper” that can be recycled.

6. “Plastics” that are compostable or marked with “other” are not recyclable. They either need to be composted (if it is compostable and available near you) or put in the trash.

7. Your milk carton is compostable, not recyclable. Either compost or trash it, preferably compost of course.

Bonus for students:
In your trash areas outside your dorm (or any dorm if you live off campus and want to take advantage) there is a section for e-waste. You can leave any kind of electronic, printer toner/ink cartridge, batteries, ect. there to be responsibly recycled.

Now you too can answer “Can I recycle this?”

This morning while I was eating my breakfast and staring at the table I stumbled upon this:

I couldn’t believe that this company that sells nuts was honestly trying to say that their new plastic package was better and greener because it’s LIGHTER than glass. Seriously? So instead of sticking with one of the greenest packaging materials (based on the ease of recycling and the creation of the material), they decided to switch to a petroleum based substance full of toxic chemicals. Just what I have always wanted, peanuts with a hint of plastic.

It’s no secret that college students across the nation are acquiring what seems like an endless amount of debt. Outstanding student loans are set to reach $1 trillion this year, a number I can barely wrap my mind around. With the rising expense of college and the challenge of not only getting a job in the first place, but also finding time to work while going to school, money is tight for many college students. 


In an effort to keep more of my money in my savings account, I have started doing a piece of Good‘s 30 day challenge: Financial Fitness Task. I have decided to adopt day 25 for the rest of the year: “Make a Wish List to Curb Impulse Buys.” Instead of letting myself buy things on the spot I will take a picture of them with my phone and add them to my list. At the top will be necessities – things I truly need to survive or that will make my life easier like textbooks or socks – and at the bottom will be clothing and other items I can easily live without. 


In doing so I have learned that after a few days I don’t want the item anymore and I end up deleting it off my wish list, and the items that do end up staying are the ones that I should spend my money on anyways. By making a list I also spend more time thinking about if I really need the item, where the item comes from, and if it would help or hinder my goal to live more sustainably. This means that most superfluous items get crossed off real quick. Do I need the beautiful print that reminds me to mend my own clothes? No. Do I need another shirt? No. 


Making a list allows for contemplation and it gives me more time to consider if these items fit in with my overall goals and beliefs. In doing so I not only save money, but I live more sustainably. 


Need a little more motivation? Alissa from Good said:

“Be wary of the buy one, get one free deal. Were you really intending to purchase it in the first place? Don’t be tempted to throw a few needless things into your cart to reach $100 just so you can get that 10 percent off. Stay strong, stand your ground, and remember your goals!

It takes nothing more than a split-second burst of willpower. Gather your courage and walk away, knowing every bit saved is a step toward getting what you really desire. And when the time comes to check something off your wish list, you can make the purchase guilt-free. You’ve earned it!”

I was asked yesterday if I ever felt guilty for how long I spend in the shower. Aside from being a weird, personal question, it is one of those questions that comes up whenever I am around other environmentally minded people. But it is also one of those complicated questions where if you say “no” you obviously don’t care about the environment or your impact and if you say “yes” you are supposedly a whining environmentalist who is never happy and can’t even shower without complaining. 


Blogs and television personalities joke about this guilt, but I think it’s actually important. All over green blogs people talk about bringing timers into the bathroom to cut down their showers, and it has become this challenge or competition to see who can have the shortest shower the least often. And I am certainly not saying that this is bad – conserving our water is incredibly important and every drop counts, but where does this leave those of us who have significantly shortened our showers but just can’t make it to that three minute mark or who are just too cold to rinse, turn off the water, soap, and rinse again?

It leaves us with guilt. 


So yes, I am an environmentalist, a hippy, a greenie, a whatever else you want to call me who feels guilty about the length of my shower. But I am alright with that. That guilt reminds me every time I turn on the water to shower as fast as I can and waste as little water as possible. Some days I really need that extra push to get in and out in a record breaking time, and other days it just doesn’t happen. 

On days when I am feeling incredibly unmotivated to do homework, I watch a documentary. Although this is technically procrastinating, I am still learning something new and often the documentaries I watch will spark new ideas or rekindle my passion for the things I am learning in class. 


Today was one of those days, and in an attempt to “waste” as little time as possible, I chose my documentary based on one thing, the total running time. But for only being 52 minutes long, “Dive!: Living Off America’s Waste” packed quite a punch.

“Dive!” exposes a few key flaws in our food production system that lead us to waste 1/2 of the food we produce. The numbers are staggering. “Wasting 96 billion pounds of food costs roughly $136 billion annually” according to “Dive!”. The movie itself is based around the concept of eating out of grocery store dumpsters (also known as being a “freegan”), a practice that is not only controversial, but also growing in popularity.

I think in the U.S. most people are aware of the enormous amounts of food waste from our country alone, but it is a whole other thing to see the food tossed in dumpsters at a micro level spliced together with quotes and mathematical information on not only the true amount and cost of what we waste, but also with people who are struggling to get enough food to survive. 


The movie itself was informative and interesting, but be prepared for it to look more like something out of a film school than a professional documentary. This is by no means a downside, as it is still well crafted and creatively edited, the project just lacks the money of the typical Hollywood production most people are used to seeing (it reminded me of the documentary “No Impact Man” in this aspect). It’s one film I would definitely recommend. If you have time to watch your favorite TV show, you definitely have time to “Dive!”.


“Food is life, and it should never be wasted.” Dr. Timothy Jones, “Dive!”