We all know that the choices our generation makes now will affect our children and our children’s children in the future.

In the past few years awareness of environmental issues has exploded, yet I don’t think we’re doing all we can to insure the preservation of our resources for future generations. It’s 2008, and I know we all know that we don’t have infinite resources, so I have to ask: Why aren’t we doing more?

I have to praise students who had a part in creating and maintaining the Students for Environmental Awareness here on our campus. They have been taking steps toward recycling and preserving on our campus, yet these students are few.As a work study employee in a place where campus printing takes place, it has become clear to me that some students and faculty don’t realize how wasteful printing can be. Recently student leaders made a huge printing request that then had to be redone because of a small typo, and yes I realize that these students want their work to look professional and typos might hurt their image, but I don’t think they realized how wasteful this mistake was. I have experienced countless occasions where some were not aware of where their reject copies go.

Not only does wasting paper use a lot of natural resources, but it fills up our nation’s landfills. I don’t know about you but I know I wouldn’t want our beautiful land to be overtaken by trash.

It has been my experience that some people think it’s up to powerful leaders to make huge changes that will ultimately save our society from its bad habits, but the truth is, we all have to make an effort to conserve.

If we make small steps every day, our savings will add up tremendously. Even doing something as simple as using both sides of the paper can save a huge amount of resources. Especially when departments are making upwards from 1,000 copies, printing on both sides is the difference between using 1,000 sheets of paper and 2,000 sheets of paper.

Reusing your plastic bottles or shopping bags would also make a huge difference and save you some money. I’ve even seen some people reuse their Ziploc storage bags. Even making a bigger change like buying only printer paper with a high percentage of post consumer waste cuts down on the amount of trees it takes to make paper from scratch.

By no means am I saying that there aren’t those of us around who do make an effort to conserve on campus, but there are those who don’t. It’s about time that those who aren’t making this effort caught up with the rest of them. All I’m asking is that everyone at least try to change one of their habits that’s bad for our environment, even if it’s throwing gum wrappers on the ground. When we all continue to hear about how much these natural resources affect us and our future generations, isn’t it time we move forward?