Minimize Your Carbon Footprint

CAT-2 BAT-5

How You Can Help

What did I Change in a Week?

After I thought about what can ı change, I decided that I can only reduce my energy consumption. Because I always use public transportation, the only option was to reducing energy consumption in my home. For that reason, I shut down my laptop which I always prefer sleep mode and I think this saved almost a quarter of my laptop’s battery. I also did not use hot water in my daily usage which is probably reduced natural gas consumption a little bit. I tried to use the least amount of water. I also didn’t watch TV and turned off the light of my sister’s room while she wasn’t there as always.

WEEK 2

I did the same things again like turning off the lamp of my sister’s room, using minimal water, not using hot water, not watching TV and not using the computer too much. Additionally, I realized that some times my mother forgets to tur off oven and I turned off it several times. Also, I didn’t buy junk food, I only bought packed meatballs while shopping. Also, I considered establishing solar power in our roof but I learned it would be expensive and inefficient after some research.

WEEK 3

There wasn’t much difference in week 3, it was similar to week 2. However, this time I understood that I always turn off the lights of empty rooms at least 2 times a day and turn off the oven when it is unnecessary at least 2 times a day. When it comes to shopping, I did not use any bags because when I shopping I always have my school bag and I put the thing in it. In this way, I only buy necessary things. Also, I tried to convince my best friend to buy less junk food because, when it comes to junk food it is always unnecessary to buy. Additionally, I tried to convince my same friend to not buy a car which will cause him a lot of money and which will produce a lot of carbon dioxide. I think I couldn’t convince him but I will try more because it is very unclear for a person like him who doesn’t have to go more than 200 meters away from his home. And, I think if I succeeded, it will mean that I really did something important.

WEEK 4
There wasn’t anything different in this week to week 3. Again, I warned my friend to not buy a car which is very unnecessary to him. I also searched for some new information and I shared it with my family and friends. I turned off unnecessary lights and oven. This is happening a lot and I think the total energy consumption that coming from unnecessary lights must be huge. Also, I buy only some foods nothing anything unnecessary.

What is the Problem With Paper Cups?

I think the biggest problem in AGU Campus which is related to our topic is excessive usage of paper cups. Because almost 500 billion paper cups are used annually in the world and 2 billion are used in Turkey annually. There is a big misconception about the recyclability of paper cups because even if most of the products are recyclable it difficult to recycle and because of this, tons of paper cups are not being recycled annually. According to some researches for the annual production of paper cups, 20 million trees are cut down and billions of gallon of water is used every year. This means usage of paper cups has a big impact on carbon footprint. Even some countries like the UK is considering to ban disposable coffee cup outright soon. I am sure that every week in AGU Campus more than a hundred paper cups are used and thrown to the garbage. These paper cups are bought by AGU students to mostly drink coffee and tea. And, I think if AGU students were aware of this information they wouldn’t use that much paper cups and maybe some of them would bring their cups.

Muhammed Emin Dursun

Week 1

One week was not enough time for me to reduce my carbon footprint but I did try to make real what I did know. What I did realize firstly was that I was going shopping once in two days so I was taking so many plastic bags.I decided to minimize it and I did go shopping one day a week thus I did reduce my using plastic bag. The second thing I did was paying attention to turn off the restroom lamp. What I learned and surprised me was that meat dishes leave more carbon footprint than vegetable dishes. The third thing I did was eating more vegetable dishes instead of meat dishes.

Week 2

Actually, this week, I did the same thing which I did in week 1 except for a few differences. I did shop once a week, I did turn off the lamp If I did use it, I did eat plant-based foods again. What I did differently from week 1 was I made an idea real which I knew before. I used my own water bottle throughout a week. Thus, I tried to minimize my own plastic overconsumption. I shut down my laptop completely If I wasn’t using it. In addition, I told my friends about what I did and I encouraged them to minimize their footprints.

Week 3

I did the same thing which I did in week 1 and week 2 except for a few differences. If I didn’t need any power to charge my electronic devices, I did pull out the plug, which is the same done with week 1 and week 2. I used my own water bottle weeklong. I did eat plant-based foods again. What I did differently from week 1 and week 2 is I was trying to go anywhere on foot instead of any transportation car. Because, I know that If demanding of using any transportation car to go anywhere decrease, ıt works less and emit less CO2. In addition, what I did hear something which I felt so happy was that my friends had started to minimize their carbon footprint which I mentioned last week. Strength in numbers!

  What I did realize in a week

Last week I did take a homework.My homeork was that I was observing my surrounding and finding a problem about my bat topic which was ‘what you buy‘.This is something I’ve never done before.Firstly I did observed my dorm friends.They were always buying fastfood such as burger ,pizza etc.Fastfood is generally include meat and meat leaves more carbon footprint than plant-based recipes. They do have some clothes which they did wear only once.Buying too much clothes is also harmful for our world.I and my dormitory frineds  go to shop about  3 times a week and we take plastic bag in every shopping. Products which we did take have plastic package too. The heating energy of our dormitory is being provided by natural gas.But our room is too warm in the evening. Sometimes we have to open a window to cool our room .Consumption too much non-renewable energy leave too much carbon footprint behind. Most of my friends in the university buy  disposable plastic water bottles.It is not necesseary at all. Plastic items can take up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfills . We can buy one reusable water battle. These are what I did realize  in a week.

Yasir DUMAN