OUR HOSTS: 

Corinne Foxx - @corinnefoxx

Natalie McMillan - @nataliemcm and @shopnataliemcmillan 

What we're drinking: Tablas Creek Vineyards Patelin de Tablas

TOPIC: 

When we first heard “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” from Schoolhouse Rock in elementary school, global warming was considered a minor issue. Fast forward to 2022 and the message still applies, but it’s more urgent. Climate change is causing irreversible damage to our planet, so on today’s episode, we wanted to share simple ways to live more sustainably and how you can take small steps that create big changes in the environment. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• What is eco-anxiety and how it’s affecting Gen Z in particular 
• How fashion, beauty, food, and travel industries contribute to climate change 
• Our tips for how to transform your house to be more eco-friendly, including our favorite products like Marley's Monsters UNpaper Towels 
• Easing into a more environmentally conscious diet by participating in Meatless Monday
• Products to eliminate from your beauty and hygiene routine and ideas for how to replace them 
• Ways to travel and explore new cities without massively increasing your carbon footprint 

END OF THE SHOW: 

Corinne and Natalie introduce Hottie of the Week: Salma Hayek

WINE RATING:

Tablas Creek Vineyards Patelin de Tablas = 5/Salma Hayek

WRAP UP:

To wrap up the episode, we play 200 Questions. We talk about our most recent adventure in Salem, MA and the even crazier flight home. Corinne shares about her experiences seeing the Statue of David and ceiling of The Sistine Chapel in person, and discovers that she’s apparently a Michaelangelo stan. 

We have a brand new newsletter for our Am I community. You can sign up for the newsletter on our website: amidoingthisrightpod.com

You can email us for episode ideas or Random Advice: amidoingthisrightpod@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram: @amidoingthisrightpod 

Don't forget to rate and review the podcast! It really helps us grow!

[00:00:09] Natalie McMillan: And I'm Natalie McMillan.

[00:00:25] Natalie McMillan: And each week we cover a new topic and we pop open a new bottle of wine.

Ooh, why should get a little song?

And this week, we are talking how to be more eco-friendly and easy things you can do in your every day life to save our little planet, this little planet after this huge, massive rock were right on that we just

happened to be floating in space on, yes,

How the fashion, beauty and food industries affect our planet. And what is eco anxiety? What is that I'm excited to dig in and meet you. And at the end of the episode, we're going to be playing 200 questions. No, we're not answering her questions. We're just answering a fun little question. That's a little off topic.

So stick around because that's always a good time is a good time. But first Nat, what winery

Okay. So it is a California wine and it's just, it's just a good old blend. But what Patel into tablets means, I don't know. Sounds like the name of like the little geeky kid at your school, but Delane put the analyser

[00:02:00] Natalie McMillan: fucking. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I am following. You're balling. Wow.

[00:02:14] Natalie McMillan: it, feeling it, but we're here because we

We do, we do. Skin into how to protect our little planet and why we chose this topic.

[00:02:40] Corinne Foxx: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Is that what's that from, was that a school house? Rock? No. Yeah. Reduce, reuse, recycle thing was on. That

[00:03:03] Corinne Foxx: bit in trouble. Talk

Also. I feel like back in the day, the huge emphasis was that. Ruining the rainforest. Yeah,

[00:03:13] Natalie McMillan: forest thing,

And it's private school. You don't go to the

[00:03:31] Corinne Foxx: the dump. You go to the dump. And my mom was like, my eyes were, I will never forget it. Like seeing all of the trash and all these things that like, could be recycled. Yeah. My mom is a stickler on recycling, like for her, if I go to her house and like drink a can of soda and put it in the trash, she literally pulls it out and goes, who did this?

Oh, good for Connie. And she loves to take her little recycling to the little center and she gets like $12 and she puts her, oh, wow. So that's what she fuels her car that emits CO2 recycling money. Hey, you know what? Carbon

Because we can't be. We can't be perfect, but we got to try because unfortunately we're at the we're at the point where we can't, we can't simply just recycle anymore. Oh, what's her name? The little girl Gretta Gretta. Can you do the impression. Oh,

[00:04:30] Natalie McMillan: I believable,

It was very

[00:04:45] Corinne Foxx: but I will never play her. I

[00:05:06] Corinne Foxx: doing my granddad and Broadway

I was blown away that Uber driver, he got a show because that w I would have paid money to see that it was incredible. Thank you.

That great.

[00:05:34] Corinne Foxx: fun. So while it is an extremely grim and alarming report, we feel like millennials and gen Z in particular, we love gen Z. We really always been very aware of the danger we're in and have always been looking for ways to help combat it. In fact, a recent survey done by the United nations development program in conjunction with Oxford university.

I mean,

[00:05:59] Corinne Foxx: too legit to quit, which included over half a million, 14 to 18 year olds over 50 different countries. Suggest people are in favor of policy changes to boost renewable power and sustainable

[00:06:13] Corinne Foxx: Everybody's on board. It's going to save the world. Really? I think millennials, we kind of started and then we kind of, what, where the fuck are we at now?

Well, it's really in gen Z's hands

yeah, it's perfect. Which brings us to our next point, which is eco anxiety. Oh yeah. So this is a real thing and it is being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the issue and mindful of your position as just one person on a planet of billions. So a lot of people feel really powerless when it comes to the climate crisis.

Which has led to the phenomenon of eco anxiety. I will say that I think

[00:07:07] Natalie McMillan: like helpless, like, okay.

So I'm just going to do this alone, like, ah, so psychology today. They describe eco anxiety as a fairly recent psychological disorder afflicting and increasing number of individuals who worry about. The environmental crisis, the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, which is the guide mental health professionals use to make diagnosis is here in the United States.

[00:07:53] Corinne Foxx: Do you know?

That will change because I bet you eco anxiety is more gen Z. Cause it affects them more where like right now they're just still coming up, but I bet you. I get older. That will become

[00:08:08] Corinne Foxx: I know the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders already classified gaming as an addiction.

Oh, wow. Yeah. There's gaming addictions now. And I bet you just, like, as that age group gets older, this will be included as well,

Like it does.

Jeez, but there are some things you can do. Just like, again, these are simple, these are small, but they will make you feel more empowered and they do make a difference. One of them being to change your light bulbs to led. So take a moment today to make sure your home is using all led light bulbs. I don't think I am.

And I think you could definitely ever make sure I'm not sure. Yeah. LEDs typically use about 75% less energy than traditional. Incandescents and can last at least 35 times longer. They may seem incidental in helping people transition to clean energy, but at least it's a solution that's bred.

[00:09:46] Corinne Foxx: little. They have them now that her like warm, like more cozy, it's not, they've

[00:09:53] Corinne Foxx: bulb. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I switched to a reusable water bottle, which I think in LA, a lot of people have, but maybe, I don't know, maybe you don't have one.

Despite recent images of oceans, brimming with plastics and Marine life washed ashore, American still use an average of 50 billion plastic water bottles a year. My God. Yeah. And while recycling has become part of the modern lifestyle, a unsettling fact remains 91% of plastic is not recycled one night. W

Is that what you said? 91.

It will say money. Yes, yes. That I, when I was doing the research, I was noticing a lot of the things was like, why buy an electric car? Why is it. Well, it's also just cheaper for you. All this stuff is cheaper. Yes. Reusing

[00:11:09] Corinne Foxx: Another thing that you can do in your home to be more sustainable is to use eco-friendly cleaning products, toxic chemicals from cleaning products, such as dish soaps, floor cleaners, all purpose spray.

Detergents are flushed down the drain and can enter our waterways and toxins can contaminate the water sources and be harmful to aquatic life. Also, did you know that commercial cleaning products contain VOC, VOC are volatile, organic compounds and they're hazardous. And they pose dangers to our own health.

We don't care about the environment, our own health by leaching into the air. And they, cause I know throat irritation. Dizziness, respiratory impairment, even memory loss. Jeez. So that part I use, I use basically only clean eco products and yeah,

[00:12:04] Corinne Foxx: a once a month.

I have my cleaning, our cleaning lady comes together at this point and she just did.

[00:12:27] Corinne Foxx: just got these reusable paper towels, actually.

Thank you, Ashley and Michael Jo's sister-in-law and brother, they showed these to me and it was, I felt like I was using paper towels all the time to like, you know, just wipe down the counters and then I just throw it away. And I was like, this is not sustainable at all. And I was using a lot. Yeah. I like to keep my house really clean.

So I was using a lot. And so now there are these little cloth pieces of cloth that attached to each other so that you can roll them up light, like a, like a paper towel roll. They go on a little paper towel holder and I just pull it off and it's a little cloth and I wipe down the counters and then I put it in this little bin and then I washed them at the end of the week.

Then I reuse them. Perfect. And those are called Marley's Munster. Marley's monsters. We'll link it in the show notes. If you guys pick up, I need to get some of

[00:13:10] Corinne Foxx: They're really fun. I really liked them a lot.

Yeah.

[00:13:13] Corinne Foxx: decorating. Yeah. You can get like really fun designs. You wouldn't, we would love all the designs on

Oh my God. I'm going to go home and get them. Honestly. Also, if you got a new car or you're in, in the market, consider an electric vehicle because it runs on electric motor instead of the gasoline engine, a battery powered vehicle produces zero tailpipe emissions. So there's little doubt that having more electric cars on the road in congested, urban area, Can improve local air quality.

The average electric vehicle in the United States today produces the emissions equivalent of a gasoline car that gets 73 miles per gallon. 73. Yeah, that's a lot. And actually it's just set to get better and better as wind and solar is going to start replacing coal fired electricity because we're still, we're still generating with coal.

Yes. But once we get wind and solar

And I would've never got saying, I wouldn't say never guessed that. Yeah. So at this pace, the fashion industry is greenhouse gas emissions will surge more than 50% by 2030. So if demographic and lifestyle patterns continue as they are now, global consumption of apparel will rise from 62 million metric tons in 2019 to 102, 102 million tons in 10 years.

That's

[00:15:13] Corinne Foxx: The average person today by 60% more clothing than in 2000. And not only do they buy more, they also discard more as a result.

So less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments. And this is largely in part due to the rise in fast fashion over the past 10 years or so, I will say no matter what, I mean, I always donate my clothes. I don't ever throw

[00:15:38] Corinne Foxx: donated my clothes. Yeah. And then if I don't, if I really nice clothes, I do consignment.

Yeah. Yeah. Which I guess, I don't know what happens if they don't get sold. All right.

[00:15:52] Corinne Foxx: insane. That's like a like fashion.

Yeah. So one thing is to go vintage. So do things like shopping secondhand and vintage and going to your local Goodwill or. Charity shop. You can find all kinds of really great stuff there. Again, cheaper way cheaper. You can also buy on sites like Poshmark or D

[00:16:26] Natalie McMillan: I have, I downloaded Depot, but I've never used it. I get a lot of stuff on post. Oh, wow. It's just always cheap. These vintage Levi's I got it for $14. Wow.

[00:16:37] Natalie McMillan: you. Thank you. $14 on Poshmark, WASO, reusing where recycling. And also E-bay if I know like a specific thing that I want, like, oh, I want to search for this like certain band tee.

If I go on eBay and like start searching for it. I found ones on there too. And it's kind of fun. Cause it's like a scavenger hunt.

[00:16:58] Natalie McMillan: Straight up by less. So just not shopping at all is a really great way to do this embracing what you already own. And what's already in your wardrobe. You know, it's kind of a lame tip, but it's not very fun, but also the planet is burning.

That's also not. Not fun. You can also look for eco-friendly materials. So look out for more natural fibers, for example, cotton over polyester. Not only do they feel a lot nicer when you wear them, but they don't contain things like microfibers that go into the water and into Marine life. When we wash our clothes, I had no idea about that.

I didn't

[00:17:37] Natalie McMillan: no idea that microfibers go into the ocean. But, Hey, this is why we have this podcast. And then lastly, learn how to DIY, cause it doesn't take much to learn how to hand sew or stitch up a little hole. Or if you have a pair of ripped jeans, if they're becoming too ripped, you can just cut those off.

Make them shorts, another flag. We love a George. Oh, I am. I would say 90% of the year, we really are. I really am. Another fun idea is to put cool patches on your jeans, you know, and if sewing, isn't your thing, you can take your stuff to a local tailor and they'll get a sorted out. Yeah. You know, you don't need to just throw things out.

I think we should move

Jeez food retail too, is an increasingly important part of the picture emissions from the sector tripled between 1990 and 2015 in large part, thanks to increasing demand for refrigeration to prevent food from spoiling. That's a lot of energy. Yeah. Yeah. But there are things we can do. Yes.

Now this doesn't mean that you're going to have to go vegan. This is not what this means. Yes. Realistically, for the majority of people cutting down on meat consumption just to like a couple of days a week back could make a huge difference. So did you know that it takes 30 bathtubs of water to produce one burger?

Wow. One burger. One third of the Earth's land is dedicated to

[00:19:32] Natalie McMillan: conditions, conditions. Jesus, Paul McCartney, he's been a long time vegetarian and he says it's meat-free Mondays. So you designate Monday as being your day to be a little veggie for the sake

Yeah. I feel like I have, I have like, I'm a meat eater, but I first I do not cook meat at home. I only, I cook fish at home and that's really, it. Me and Joe make our little spaghetti, which, you know, we know what I'm talking about. We make a low meat sauce, but I really will go days without eating meat. And then on the weekends, or if we're out or go to a nice place, then I'll eat meat.

But I feel like when you just like, have it in your mind, like I don't eat it all the

[00:20:20] Corinne Foxx: Yeah, totally, totally. You can also eat as a locally as possible. So if you're eating soybeans that are shipped from China or bananas that have been shipped from Columbia, that's not as sustainable as if you're eating apples grown in Washington or even in your own town. So if you support your local farmer's market, her also supporting more low scale food agriculture, which tends to be more kind of miss girl.

We're kinder to miss girl,

[00:20:50] Corinne Foxx: Out of the farm. We going to get every Sunday. I don't do that. I need to do that. There's one down the street from my

[00:21:01] Corinne Foxx: tastes so cool to like meet the people who like, make

So if you're eating something that isn't in season, then you know, that they've been grown in a greenhouse somewhere that uses a massive amount of resources to basically fake the weather. So you're using a huge amount of heat energy to grow, whatever it is that's out of season. I'd never considered that it's an actually to recreate a whole.

Like a weather pattern. Yeah. I need to

[00:21:34] Natalie McMillan: I don't that I eat bananas every single day, go in and out season. Oh shit, I gotta work on this. And

I think about packaging. So you can make better choices at the store by buying unpackaged, fruit and vegetables, or opting for cans and cardboard that are widely recycled instead of fast.

Oh, I just put them straight on the. Good for you because you know, they're just going to go in my grocery bag anyways, and I'm going to wash them still. Yeah. So save the little bags. So this is actually, we're going to move into a new one, which has been shocking for me to learn about. Yes. And that is the beauty

Yes. Also affected by packaging.

So about 70% of the beauty industry's waste comes from packaging and according to latest reports from zero waste week beauty packaging amounts to 120 billion units every year. That includes plastic paper, glass, and metals, all of which end up in landfills year after year. Yeah. Now here's something hold on to your seats.

[00:23:24] Corinne Foxx: That is so upsetting. That is so upsetting.

Just use a good wash cloth and a nice oil-based cleanser to help break down your makeup at the end of the day. If you've got a baby, though, look, they do have biodegradable wipes. So kind of look out for that. I have these little cotton rounds they're made out of bamboo. You can get them on Amazon, although that's not equal, but Hey, it's a little.

A little steps, but I use these reusable cotton rounds to take my makeup off and they're really soft, super durable. And then they come with this little bag. So when I just throw them all in there and wash them with my clothes, you wash them?

They're like your little paper towels, but they're little cotton

[00:24:26] Corinne Foxx: maybe I'll try to find, to get them, to get them not on, not on Amazon. It's a trap and everything you can do is to try to buy package free so you can get shampoo, conditioner and body wash bars.

They might cost a little bit more, but they last actually a lot longer. So the cost per use is a lot lower. This isn't something that we've actually personally tried yet, but you've seen it at lush. I've seen it at lush.

[00:24:56] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. I've never, I really need to, I don't want to give that a shot too.

There's also a bunch of brands now that do razors with environmental friendly replacement blades that they mailed to use. You're not getting the package of like plastic razors every month. I do that. Now I have a reusable head that I just bought the new head

[00:25:16] Corinne Foxx: still, I still just have to get 'em.

It's called Flamingo. Okay. I saw those Abbs. I saw that, that target. I don't know if that's sustainable, but maybe it is. I'm sure

[00:25:30] Corinne Foxx: Yeah, no, no, no, this isn't that big. Do you think the top, but anyways, it's less plastic for sure.

Absolutely love them. We have not tried that.

And I only wear mine to sleep, but I think my, like my little sisters wear it to school and stuff like. Literally zero. Wait, it is zero. It's

[00:26:36] Corinne Foxx: shorts incredibly soft. I feel like even if you sleep in a tampon, it's uncomfortable, still extremely uncomfortable.

[00:26:45] Corinne Foxx: Yeah, all that single use. Yeah. Wash these. And they're going to go also, but you know, w we're not saying that all big brands can't be, eco-friendly a lot of big beauty brands are really taking inspiration from the environmental and even vegan movement. So keep an eye out for your favorite brands and see if they're launching something that is more, eco-friendly like an alternative for you that you can kind of jump on their bandwagon.

I think the beauty industry is probably. Way more self-aware than other

Just that one flight, the total carbon impact of a single flight is so high that avoiding just one trip can be equivalent to going gasoline free for a year.

So it's not really that much helpful,

[00:28:00] Corinne Foxx: better than flying. Really?

But for example, tomorrow I'm driving up to the bay. I could fly flying would take 45 minutes. Six and a half hours. There we go.

I love to do, but so clean, so clean, you can hop on one of those instead of like catching an Uber or a taxi. And also, like we just said, be mindful of flying cars. Of course flying is inevitable, but. Life example is that we recently went from New York to Boston and instead of taking a 50 minute flight, we took a little four hour train ride and it was so fun.

It was honestly more fun. We, I had Doritos and ginger ale or Sprite. Coke. Yes. Yes. That was when I was on my

So when packing your toiletries consider using like refillable bottles instead of the little travel sized ones that you're just going to throw away in the end or the little tiny hotel shampoos. Cause they probably do not recycle those. Oh

Yeah. Why

[00:29:54] Corinne Foxx: adventure. It's a great city to ride

[00:30:02] Corinne Foxx: love the bikes and Linda and I took those around all the time.

Yes. I wonder also about birds and stuff. I wonder if writing

[00:30:26] Natalie McMillan: Like I wonder if,

[00:30:37] Natalie McMillan: huh.

[00:30:42] Natalie McMillan: Just attach yourself to a pit. No, I mean like the little electric scooters, I don't know how much more eco-friendly that would be because they obviously do have to be

[00:30:54] Natalie McMillan: drive driving. It's got

Something really cool. We can do, if you want to see how great your carbon footprint is, you can go to footprint, calculator.org and see how your lifestyle affects the planet. Oh shit. I did it. And it's terrifying. Don't I mean, I, I suggest you do it because it gives you, it's like, oh, what type of car do you drive?

Okay.

[00:31:36] Corinne Foxx: here. Yes. You know, we'll link the quiz in the show notes. If you guys want to take it and, you know, see where you can be better, but we hope that you guys learn more about how to incorporate eco-friendly habits into your own life and feel inspired to live a more sustainable life.

We got it. We got to do it. Like literally we have no choice we have to do, but not. Should we circle back on the wine we're drinking, which is yeah.

[00:32:04] Corinne Foxx: tablets. That's that weird? Getting your science talent plus tablets. Tell him

From Pasa Robles, California.

[00:32:20] Natalie McMillan: Yes, our hotties miss some Hayak she's actually on the board of the global green organization, which raises awareness about global warming helps create green jobs, supports affordable green housing projects and assist disadvantaged communities in fighting climate

I love that. Cool. Yeah. I feel like Salma Hayek is very unproblematic. Yeah. I think so. So one, two Salma Hayek,

[00:32:52] Corinne Foxx: Dang. We've had a lot. Okay.

[00:32:59] Corinne Foxx: ones. We did, we did really, we ended the 20, 21 strong.

Yeah, we did. We just didn't get back in our flow for the new year. I give it a. 5 5, 5 stuck down the barrel Berry. It's a wine. It is. Wine is a wine period.

All right. So this is the part of the episode where he played a little wrap-up game. And today we're playing 200 questions. No, we're not answering two under questions or picking a question one through 200. It gets more intimate as you get higher and we're going to answer it. So, Natalie. And the hot seat.

This is always

[00:33:55] Corinne Foxx: It's not thrilling, but you know, we're going to do it anyways.

Have you ever given to any charities? Yes. Okay. You want to do another one?

[00:34:12] Corinne Foxx: 8. Okay. What's the last adventury went

Yeah. That was an adventure. Oh, for sure. And then leaving wasn't adventure as well.

[00:34:29] Natalie McMillan: in the middle of a bomb cyclone. Oh, in which the plane actually, we might not even be alive right now. This might be a figment of our imagination.

I still to this day thing and go into a different dimension and we're we're yeah. We're dad who died

[00:34:56] Corinne Foxx: I'll go. I'll choose a number one through 200. Uh, let's

Oh, I don't think we've done this. Okay. What's the most interesting piece of art you've seen.

It was so. Massive. You just, have you seen him present? Oh, I've never been. Oh, okay. So if you see it in person, it is like, you've seen pictures of it and you're like, okay, I wasn't excited to go. I didn't want to go as wasn't right. I know what it looks like. And I wasn't. I was like, I was like, Stunning. Like I was like pushed back to the back.

Like when I was at the Mona Lisa, I was like, dang. Cause it's so small, but it's insanely huge.

[00:35:56] Corinne Foxx: who did it, Michelangelo. Michelangelo. Did he also do the Sistine chapel? He did. I also said the Sistine chapel, which I was going to say is the only other time where I was like, holy shit.

Oh, so

Like they were all alive. Com dunked on Michelangelo. They hated that guy. So in the painting, he's literally like leaning and he's like, oh, sad. Looking on a block of marble. Oh my God. Funny, funny,

I've never seen anything like this.

[00:36:58] Corinne Foxx: old. Oh my God. Not know that. So yeah, maybe it's very basic boring, but I do remember being like, holy shit. When I, when I saw David and also the Sistine chapel,

You know what I mean? True, true, true.

[00:37:27] Natalie McMillan: Oh my God, we should. I

[00:37:31] Natalie McMillan: facts and hacks guys. My God, we are vacs. We're waxed and we're doing facts and facts over

And we will be back next week with another episode by .