Hi, you're listening to Cultivate
curiosity, a.
Podcast that inspires the next generation
to stay curious.
Cultivate Curiosity is brought to you by
the Emerald Coast Science Center, a
nonprofit.
Interactive science museum and steam
educational facility in Fort Walton Beach,
Florida.
This podcast is perfect for anyone curious
about the world we live in, because.
You never know what we'll talk about
next.
Hi, my name is Jacie and I'm
the social media coordinator here at the
Science center. And on today's episode of
Cultivate Curiosity, we're going to talk
about sustainable New Year's resolutions.
So as the new year of 2024
begins and you set goals or resolutions
for this year, we want to inspire
you to make some sustainable New Year's
resolutions. Anytime is a great time to
start practicing more sustainable living
habits, and the new year feels like
an especially poignant time to make a
sustainable resolution or set an
eco-friendly goal to partake in efforts to
save our planet. Many eco-friendly
resolutions and sustainable goals focus on
consumption, but planet friendly living is
about circularity. That circle of
sustainability includes how we get, use,
and pass on the items we use.
We have a list of sustainable New
Year's resolutions that you can consider,
and it's up to you which ones
will be a good fit for you
or your family. So let's dive right
in. First thing you can do is
learn more about eco-friendly living.
Educate yourself about the various facets
of eco-friendly living through books,
courses, blogs, podcasts, or other
sources. Climate change and a healthy
planet have so many components and
complexities. You can also buy items
secondhand. There are so many ways to
consume secondhand, from thrift and
consignment shops to online resale sites,
garage sales, swaps, buy nothing groups,
Facebook, marketplace, and more. Get a
library card have you been to your
local library lately? Chances are they
lend out a lot more than books,
including movies and even puzzles. Most
libraries also have lots of free or
inexpensive programs to fill your
afternoons and weekends. You can also
bring your water bottle. Many people carry
around water bottles, but we don't see
many people using their water bottles at
places like fast or casual restaurants.
Don't be afraid to take your water
bottle with you everywhere. Commit to
ditching not only plastic water bottles,
but also plastic cups and all the
single use containers offered by
restaurants, grocery stores, and other
outlets. You can mend your clothing. All
too often, clothing ends up in the
trash due to a missing button, a
small tear, or a little stain. With
a few simple skills and resources, we
can mend our clothing to make it
last much longer, save money and keep
clothing out of landfills. You can also
update your laundry habits. Clothes
washing constitutes almost 40% of a
garment's environmental impact. Certain
types of fabric shed microplastics into
the water cycle during washing, ultimately
polluting our waterways and oceans. Many
detergents and laundry products are loaded
with chemicals. Consider using more
sustainable detergents like detergent
sheets or powder. You can also start
or steward a little free library little
free libraries are standalone mini
libraries supported by those in the
hyper local community. They are small,
simple boxes that hold a couple dozen
books and community members take or leave
a book as they please. We have
also seen other little free libraries that
include open food items for those who
may need food and cannot provide it
for themselves, dog treats or toys,
especially near parks and stuff like that
that you would take your dogs to
and other things that your community may
need. This is such a great way
to create a sense of community in
your area. And on a side note,
we also have a little free library
here at the science center. It is
just filled with books, but there's all
kinds of books, science books, and we
have some different people that will come
and put new books in there for
us as well. So that's amazing. You
can also reuse and upcycle containers. We
buy so many items from the grocery
store that come in containers we can
clean and reuse. Glass jars and bottles
are some of the easiest and most
helpful containers to reuse. Clean glass
jars and bottles, remove the labels and
use them throughout your kitchen for
storage, home decor products or anything
else. You can also reuse plastic bags
like zip top bags. These are high
enough quality that they can endure many
uses before being discarded. We can also
reduce plastic waste from grocery
shopping. Bring your own bags to the
grocery store or try shopping in the
bulk food sections in order to reduce
plastic. In the United States alone, we
use 100 billion plastic bags per year.
That's crazy. Much of the plastic we
use to carry groceries home is used
for just a few minutes and can
be easily replaced by reusable bags or
containers. Another thing to do is shop
at farmers markets or local vendors.
Buying local food and produce reduces the
carbon footprint of the food, encourages
investment in your local community, and
often results in better quality food. It's
fresher and not a product of a
commercial agriculture system that
contributes dramatically to climate
change. A couple local farmers markets
include the downtown Fort Willem Beach
Farmers Market, Destin Commons Farmers
Market, Grand Boulevard Farmers Market,
and I know there are some in
Niceville as well, but I cannot remember
the names off the top of my
head. Another thing kind of going with
this is if you in your area
have a refillable shop. So this is
where you bring your own containers and
stuff like that and they allow you
to fill them up and you can
fill it up with like detergent for
washing your clothes, shampoo, oils,
different food items as well. So if
that's something that is in your local
area, that is a great thing to
do as well. You can swap out
your toilet paper instead of lugging home
large packages of toilet paper from a
big store, order recycled bamboo toilet
paper package with no plastic from a
brand like who gives a crap? It's
a more convenient and environmentally
friendly toilet paper alternative. You can
also brush your teeth a little
differently. Resolve to keep your teeth
clean in a way that has less
impact on the environment. Try bamboo
toothbrushes and soak floss, both of which
are compostable. There are also
alternatives to two toothpaste, including
toothpaste tablets kind of in that same
breath hair washing habits. Consider
options like shampoo and conditioner bars
that reduce plastic packaging instead of
buying something from the store where it
has all that plastic packaging. And if
you're getting it in that shampoo or
conditioner bar, that's probably going to
last you a lot longer than a
bottle of shampoo or conditioner is going
to last you because it's very concentrated
in that bar. So it's not only
saving the planet, it's also probably
saving you money as well. Use your
devices longer and repair them. Tablets,
computers, smartphones and other devices
don't need to be replaced every two
years or whenever the latest model is
released. Hold on to them longer and
use what you already own. Be sure
to repair them as well when you
can. Electronic waste piles up in our
landfills. Add house plants. House plants
help to purify the air in your
home. They're also a great place to
toss extra bits of water that are
left over in water bottles and cups,
and they bring a small dose of
nature into your home. If keeping plants
alive isn't your thing, which I know
it's not my thing, this resolution may
not be for you. Upcycle gift bags
and tissue paper between birthdays,
holidays and other celebrations, when you
get a gift in a bag or
with tissue paper, keep these items to
reuse for the next time you give
a gift to someone. I do this
at our house. We have a container
that just has random bags that we've
gotten throughout the year, has extra
tissue paper that we saved and anything
else we can technically, we have some
boxes that we've gotten as well for
gift giving purposes. So this one I
feel like is a pretty easy resolution
that you can start. You can also
start a compost bin. Composting is way
easier than it seems and it's really
hard to mess up. If you have
space for a backyard compost pile or
bin, we recommend doing a little bit
of research into what items can be
placed in your compost as things like
bones from your food scraps cannot go
in there. You can even compost your
grass clippings and leaves because they
are good for soil. You can also
plant pollinator friendly plants.
Pollinators like bees, butterflies, bats,
birds and more help pollinate many fruits
and vegetables. Without these pollinators,
we could have a significant gap in
the food production cycle. Over the last
few years, certain pollinator populations
have declined, in part due to loss
habitat and fewer plants to find food.
Make a resolution to plant pollinator
friendly plants in your yard or garden
to help the pollinators who work so
hard to make sure we have plenty
of fruits, nuts and flowers and the
last idea for your sustainable New Year's
resolutions that we have is volunteer with
environmental agencies. Become a volunteer
with local agencies in your area that
are protecting your environment. If you're
looking for a place in our area,
we recommend the Choctawhatchee Basin alliance.
You can join their water science crew
to monitor the water quality of a
part of the Choctawhatchee Bay or coastal
dune lake, or you can help deliver
environmental education to elementary
school students this spring with their
field trips. Volunteering with these types
of agencies is a great way to
make an impact in your local environment,
so we hope that we've inspired you
to pick at least one of these
sustainable New Year's resolutions. We
will have links to the libraries in
our area, some of the farmers markets,
the who gives a crap? Website, and
the CBA website so you can learn
more about these different ways that you
can be a little bit more sustainable
in your everyday life. If you have
any questions, comments or other
suggestions for sustainable resolutions,
you can email us socialmedia@ecscience.org
and we will see you
guys in two weeks for our next
episode where we'll be talking about
relationships in nature. So we'll see you
guys then. Bye. Thanks for listening to
this week's episode of Cultivate
Curiosity.
If you have any questions, feel free
to email us at socialmedia@ecscience.org
tune.
In for our next episode in two
weeks.