Save The Planet One Laundry Load at a Time

Imagine yourself in a classroom, twenty girls and five boys. Every day the girls (and some boys, too) change their clothes as a as a matter of fashion. But there’s one boy that wears the same boring clothes many times in a row. Same boring pants, same boring shirt (heck, even the same boring underwear, sometimes). That boy would be me. 

I don’t repeat clothes because I’m not “fashion sensitive” (bleuh!); I do it because I save the planet, one load of laundry at a time. You see, it takes more energy to wash clothes than people realize. It takes energy to heat the water for the washing machine. Also, washers run on electricity, which takes fossil fuels (unless you have solar, which I don’t sad to say.) But it takes natural gas, another fossil fuel, to run the dryer. Plus, it wears out your clothes to be washed over and over. I, for one, like my clothes. I’d rather wear them than wear them out. Even though my family does lots of things to help reduce our carbon footprint I, by forgoing fashion, help save the earth one load of laundry at a time. 

Jamie Goble
Second Place Winner

Hi, my name is Jamie Goble and I am a Green Teen. I’m from an ecologically conscientious family who understands the importance of a clean environment. We do many things to prevent global climate change on a local level—so this is what my life is like…

One of the most important things we do is to reduce garbage we throw away, ultimately leading to an increase of landfills. We separate the plastic bottles, glass bottles, and cans, with the CA CRV label, into separate bins. When they fill up, we take them down to the recycling center. All the other recyclables go in another bin that we put on the curb for the recycle center to pick up every two weeks. We also recycle plastic bags by taking cloth bags to the grocery store instead. We reuse our produce bags at the Co-op too.

Next, we have decided to by only local meats. Most meats that we ate in the past were shot full of hormones and steroids. This meat was imported from other parts of the state or country, which uses a lot of fuel. Now, we only eat local grass-feed beef and cage free eggs and poultry because it is healthier, it supports the economy, and it cuts back on pollution caused by shipping.

As you can see, we are an environmentally caring family and I know our actions make a big difference in the world.

Nirvana Beglovic
Third Place Winner

My Ecological Footprint

People do not see the point in being aware of the environment that our race is steadily continuing to destroy. Last year, each student in my English class had to write an essay about a controversial issue. One student got the topic Global Warming. They raised there hand and said “I don’t even think that’s happening”.  Those are the people who are holding us back, people who make the conclusion that it doesn’t matter if they destroy the ecosystem-they’ll be dead by the time anything bad happens. There are so many little things that we can do to help save the environment. For example; I use a reusable water bottle. My family and I use eco friendly laundry soap. We also use energy saving appliances. We eat organically, and compost our old food. I’ve noticed that most teens are more comfortable with littering, rather than taking three seconds to throw something in a trash bin. Many shy away from being aware, finding it “weird”. I think that if somehow people could be convinced that their participation is vital in the saving of our planet, we might actually have a chance to leave something for future generations.