Lately, we hear stories of what we can do to help the environment and how vital it is that we do so. If not, we will suffer great consequences due to our negligence in taking care of the earth. Teens today are increasingly aware of ways in which they can make changes in their everyday lives. “I think it’s wonderful that being green is popular now,” says Jessica Wozniak, director of Mass Recycle.

However, we have not heard a lot about ways in which helping our environment can benefit our pockets. For instance, buying locally grown food supports the “green” movement. Organic fruits and vegetables provide long-lasting rewards. When you buy local organically grown items, it is better for the environment because less gas is used to get those items to market than fruits exported from foreign countries. While our parents are buying organic foods, you can encourage them to buy their groceries in bulk. By doing this, they save money and reduce packaging waste. When informed about these facts, O’Bryant High School sophomore Yelithza Galvez, 16, says, “I always knew that locally grown foods were healthier, but I never knew they were better for the environment.”

When speaking with Galvez about how to help the environment, the only information she knew was, “use fluorescent bulbs because they last longer.” Eloho Akpovi, 16, also a student from O’Bryant, commented, “Energy efficient light bulbs help the environment and they save money because the bill isn’t high.” In fact, using compact fluorescent light bulbs can save you $40-$50 over a lifetime, according to Nstar.com.

Not only is today’s technology advanced, but it also supports the “green” trend. Rather than using a CD player, Akpovi says, “An MP3 player that does not use standard batteries is better for the environment.” Charging an MP3 player on your computer while doing homework makes double the use of the energy. In contrast, using a CD player will take you through a four pack of batteries in about a week, which averages about $10 according to cvs.com. Even using rechargeable batteries is not as beneficial because they cost about $12 for a pack of four. You can continue to charge an MP3 player on the computer, unlike batteries that will drain if you leave them in your CD player too long.

When we look at the different ways of helping the environment, we hear about the laundry list of what we can do, but all teens don’t take the time to do this. However, it “takes less energy to recycle an item than to go into an environment and extract it,” says Wozniak. She stands firm on recycling because “recycling is something everyone can do.” Therefore, no one has an excuse why they cannot recycle. In fact, Boston city workers will deliver recycling bins to your house for free. So we have no excuse as to how we are going to recycle because “the access to recycling is there,” says Wozniak.

Most of us think recycling involves reusing plastic bottles and papers, but we forget or don’t know about “recycling adding value to the economy,” says Wozniak. Most teens have a hard time finding jobs, and, even worse, many available jobs are too difficult. But “recycling makes jobs,” Wozniak says.

Taking care of our environment can also save teens money. Most teens have become accustomed to having a debit card. But did you know that if you belong to Citizens Bank or Charter One Bank, you can earn 10 cents every time you make a payment online? And even if you are not a member of one of these banks, you can still help the environment by actually using your debit card when you go shopping instead of using cash. If we all look at the ways in which helping our environment can help us to save money, we will actually choose to care instead of leaving others to do it for us. So don’t look at the environment as another boring subject but a way to save money. Besides, “it will get harder and harder to manage our waste,” says Wozniak, who suggests teens start doing something about it.