Curious About Sustainable Tips For Families

len's intro voice-over artist: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Curious About Nature Podcast. This is a podcast for folks who want to connect with nature and Rewild childhood. Hosted by Rachel Mills, Buttercup Learning's founder, an educator with 20 plus years of experience with a passion for animation, the natural world and conservation. Rachel focuses on getting digital kids outdoors and having fun in nature, promoting wellbeing and a can do attitude to local wildlife conservation and sustainable living. Join her and her guests for their stories, experiences and tips to support outdoor learning and nature connection.

Rachel: 00:00:30

Welcome to the Curious About Nature podcast. Today I'm joined by Cathy from Eco Protection Squad, author, co host of Practically Period Podcast and an ambassador for Plastic free periods and helping hand environmental. Cathy also blogs about sustainable ideas on the Simply Sustainable Ideas blog. Lovely to see you, Cathy. It's amazing to meet you. I've heard so much about you and I'm so excited to be chatting to you.

Cathy: 00:01:15

Thank you for having me on. Oh, likewise. I think we got some mutual friends in this Sustainable education businesses, haven't we? Could you tell us a little bit about your background?

Cathy: 00:01:26

So I actually didn't go into sustainability until 2016. So fairly recent. And before that I was in project management and I was working in an advertising company, but I basically went on a trip to Southeast Asia and that was really where my eyes were opened to waste because I went to this really beautiful scene, like amazing waterfall, and I just saw plastic bottles and tin cans and bags in the bottom of the waterfall. So I went to pick it up and then I realized that there wasn't actually a bin to put it in. They just had these wicker baskets side, but of course it was going to blow away again. And I then couldn't stop thinking about that. When I came back to the UK, I started doing research which obviously leads you down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of conflicting and confusing and crazy information, which is quite overwhelming. And basically I just started to dissect a lot of that and make it easier for people to understand. I started buying things that obviously would then home compost. There's all the terminology that is crazy there as well.

Cathy: 00:02:36

And then I was speaking with some friends and they said that they just found it very confusing. So I realised that actually the way that I could help was to try and take away that confusion and just limit, just give facts and little bits of information. And it snowballed from there. Where I ended up quitting my job, I did a part time stint at Keep Britain Tidy and then Covid hit, decided I was going to try and write a book, created some characters, and basically this is why I am now creating lesson plans and books, which funnily enough, was something I wanted to do. If you'd asked me when I was 6 or 7 years old, I would have told you that I would have loved to have been an author and writing books, but I never went down and did that route. But I've always loved books and language and yeah, no, it's just funny to think that here I am.

Rachel: 00:03:27

Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? I was thinking the same thing the other day.

I've recently started doing book reviews for people and when I was about seven I remember being told by parents, Oh, there are people who read books for a living and get paid for it. And I remember thinking, Oh, that's brilliant job and I'm over 46 now and finally doing that.

Cathy: 00:03:46

We should listen to those children.

Rachel: 00:03:49

Yeah, we should. The little child's voice definitely was telling me something. So where did the idea come from for Echo Protection Squad?

Cathy: 00:03:58

I set up my website for simply sustainable ideas and was just creating simple tips and swaps that people could make at home. And I was speaking with my mother in law and I was just thinking, this needs to be bigger, this needs to be further, this needs to be a way to make it easier for people to understand. And like a physical item may be for people to actually be able to look at and read and do. And she works with autistic children and they have this amazing way of understanding or this this way of teaching how to deal with emotions, which actually I think we could all learn from.

Cathy: 00:04:38

And they've got characterisations. And I was just chatting with her and single use. Sally just popped out of my mind and I was there thinking, Goodness, this could actually be something, just a little bit of back and forth with her. And I ended up creating single use Sally plastic free Prival and Danny do gooder as my first characters and it just snowballed from there to create something that I think personalized or personified, even waste. And they've now got this character and you can have a lot of fun with the character, but you can learn a lot from these characters as well. And it's now got to the point that a few of the people who have read the books, they appreciate certain characters and they will say that's their favourite character. But also if they go shopping, they'll be honest with you. Sally It was amazing, but it just sparked off a conversation with my mother in law. Really?

Rachel: 00:05:30

Yeah, yeah. It's amazing where inspiration comes from, isn't it? It can be the smallest conversation. Or in my case, it was my daughter and her question after question about where do bees come from and why do some sting and others don't. And that was the kind of sort of snowball. Facts really for buttercup. So you you provide squad challenges, don't you, for families to take part in for your protection squad. Tell us a little bit more about the missions.

Cathy: 00:05:58

So yes, the team like their missions and I was going through a stage of doing monthly ones, but then unfortunately, life got a little bit crazy. But I am going to try and bring back like more regular missions. But there are also missions on my website that are essentially lesson plans, but you can actually take them and do them and help the team defeat whatever the subject is. So one of them, for example, is to understand recycling. The aim is to defeat the Toxic Twins, Larry Landfill and Gabby Garbage, as well as single use. Sally So you could have a Code oak emergency or you could have a code sapling emergency, depending on how impactful it could be.

Cathy: 00:06:40

But the aim is to make doing some of these things fun and exciting and you feel like you've got a purpose because you're helping a bigger thing. That's something exciting about doing missions. I love it when someone says, I've got a challenge for you. I'm like, Great, I'll get on that. Yeah, I just have a lot of fun trying to come up with little activities. And on those activities, I also try to collaborate with other small businesses who are in the same space to try and raise awareness about alternatives that you might be able to find. So, for example, crayons. I remember using a very big brand when I was younger. That is a very mainstream brand, but there's actually some toxins and chemicals in it in the way that it's created. It says that it's toxic free, but there's a lot of give in what's allowed. And one of the companies that I collaborated with makes their own candles from soy wax and they sustainably source and they colour it with food grade quality. So you know that if your child is going to put it in their mouth, which happens, it's not actually going to be detrimental to them.

Cathy: 00:07:46

I collaborated with Claire from Twigs magazine. She's a hoot. She's brilliant, but it's just fun coming up with the idea for the mission and then also being able to showcase and talk about other companies who are in this space as well.

Rachel: 00:08:01

Yeah, absolutely. So you touched on it a little bit there about engaging children's interest in things to do with the environment and maybe climate change. How do you think we can introduce young children to climate change without causing them anxiety?

Cathy: 00:08:15

I think this is a really good question because I think even introducing adults can cause anxiety myself. I actually do get climate anxiety. So it is something that I am incredibly aware of and that's why the way that I think we should approach it is to make it fun, give people, give kids in particular small steps that make them feel that they've actually achieved something. There's this idea, I think, that you can't solve everything, and when you can't solve everything, you retreat into yourself quite a bit and you think that you can't make an impact.

Cathy: 00:08:49

But actually when you take that step back and you think more about what you can control and what you can do and what you can achieve, it has a bigger impact than it might be that you were making one swap now or doing one thing now, such as litter picking. But what you might not even realize is the repercussions from that that are positive. So somebody might see you litter picking and then become more aware about what you're doing and the environment yourself might be litter picking and then realize that there's a lot of waste that is repetitive. So there might be those conversations that happen at home about how to then reduce that waste in the first point. So I think as children or I think educating children, it should be fun, it should be manageable and it should be in a way that's positive about how these changes can have an impact. I think a lot of news at the moment can be incredibly negative, but there are a lot of positives out there that are happening. There are so many children in this space that are doing amazing things, who have grown up doing some research and now they're a voice that people actually listen to, which is incredible.

So it just shows that you can have that big impact no matter how big or small you are as a person.

Rachel: 00:10:05

Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree with that. And it's one of the things that I tried to do with Buttercup. We explain what's happening, but then give positive actions that kids can take to support the local wildlife on the doorstep. It could be simple things, just making sure that they're aware of the creatures in their own backyards and getting involved in like normal lawns, things like that. Simple solutions that anyone can get involved in or growing. If you don't have a garden, growing stuff in a window pot or something, so that you're giving insects stopping off point to refuel and help pollinators out really well. I was just.

Cathy: 00:10:44

Going to say, because I think that's a really good point about the nature side of it, which is what you're doing with the education side of it is amazing because nature is how people appreciate the environment and actually going out growing something yourself, but being outside more than anything and just playing outside, you get fond memories.

Cathy: 00:11:04

I don't remember some of the things that I did when I was younger, but I do remember swinging off this particular tree. I may have fallen into a load of stinging nettles, but our game was to try and jump the stinging nettles was just a load of fun. And it wasn't me being inside. It was just appreciating this little spot that we had, this tree that we could set little challenges for each other. There is an account. It's 1000 hours outside and it's a really good one with tricks and tips for how to stay outside and be wild and just appreciate nature. Nobody's unhappy when they're outside, really, are they? Whether it's that you see a nice tree or you're out by the sea and you're you're just watching the sun sparkle on it or something. Wherever you are outside, you're usually happier than you are when you're inside. We shouldn't be in these houses or inside all that time. We should be free. We should be roaming. We should be appreciating it. We should be running our hands through fields and making daisy chains.

Rachel: 00:12:00

Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned a few sort of favourite resources there already thinking about your own or other peoples, what are your other suggestions maybe around climate change or an environment that can support children's education or just knowledge?

Cathy: 00:12:18

I'm a huge fan of books. I have a young baby who is obviously not able to read yet. He's only eight months old, no matter how much I'm trying, but I read to him constantly and I do think that there are some incredible books out there that are available. No matter where you are. You can either get them online or a physical copy, but libraries as well, if you can get into them, they are just such a fantastic resource to be able to access so many books for free. But the resources that I have loved, there's a Twigs magazine I'm just going to show here. This one was in the UK and I absolutely love this because not only does it have a wonderful tree on the front, but they've got amazing activities in it as well as it's plastic free, which is hugely important, especially for a magazine, I think because for children there are so many magazines that give you a free item that's plastic and the magazine itself is plastic.

Cathy: 00:13:14

So one of the things to try and do is to just avoid any plastic wherever we can. There's also another one who I bonded with whilst we were going through a book writing like we just met whilst we were both writing our books. It's The Adventures of Scout and they're actually writing their second book, but it's a group of three people called the Three Engineers, and they're doing some amazing things in this space where they're doing some lesson plans as well. And they've got some great stories about this character called Scout, and it's rhyming as well, which I think is incredibly clever of them, but super fun as well. There's just so many books about nature. Gretta has obviously done quite a has done. I think there's a couple about her. David Attenborough as a voice that adults can relate to. Somebody might buy something or find something of. David Attenborough but actually there are some kids or children friendly versions of it as well. I just think if you just simply type in like eco friendly or sustainable online, there's a whole host of books that I just had no idea before entering this space.

Cathy: 00:14:15

And there are some truly amazing people who are doing some incredible things in the space that we're in, yourself included. You meet one person who then introduces you to 1 or 2 other people, and you're, I don't know, you're just opened up to all these different topics. But yeah.

Rachel: 00:14:32

Yeah. I'm so looking forward to next year. We're going to do a whole series on health and understanding what goes on in soil from both the creatures point of view, understanding about carbon capture and all sorts of things. So we've got a new print that we're developing and then a seasonal box series that will map out lots of different activities for spring, summer, autumn and winter and create a sort of a Planet Protectors group of children doing all of these things together and sharing through their families the ideas that they come across. As well. I've been enjoying just planning it out and it is amazing how much you learn yourself. I've learned a lot from podcast guests as well. We've talked about their specialist subjects and people are introducing me, like you said, to new things every time.

So my library is getting bigger and bigger. Yeah, there are so many spending money on books. And then I've been going to the library, like you said, a lot to take my daughter to collect things that we've ordered. And that's the great thing about libraries is that you can ask them to get books in for you as well. And in most cases they are happy to do that.

Cathy: 00:15:36

I just think they're a fantastic resource that we need to or we can definitely make more use of. And I remember when I was younger spending so much time at the library and I think it was the case that every week you would go in and you'd have 1 or 2 books that you would take out. I'm not going to lie. The ones I used to read were Asterix and Obelix Obelisk, something like that. I just found that funny. But definitely I'm trying to read more of the nature ones and appreciate enjoying them with my son. I think there are some TV shows that might end up having the odd episode that's about the environment.

And I grew up on Blue Peter and they would share a fair few things about it. But I also remember when I was younger watching Captain Planet, and that was one that really stuck with me. It was actually some of it was part of the inspiration for my stories and my book, and it had a really catchy theme song, so I was making it away from that.

Rachel: 00:16:35

Yeah. The other thing I love about you is your ethos around simply sustainable ideas. This idea know that you can have simple swaps for living more sustainably. Can you share some of your favorite swaps?

Cathy: 00:16:48

Yes. And as I said at the beginning, this is how I started it, and then I've evolved it into my books as well. But some of my favorite swaps that actually end up they're probably not necessarily the ones that you'd start off with, but they last and they're fantastic and they're actually good for you. One of them is reusable wipes in the kitchen. And just for any kind of cleaning, you end up saving.

I can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but over the course of a few years it would be thousands of pounds because I think people end up buying on average paper towels, which end up lasting, if you're lucky, two weeks, whereas these reusable wipes will end up being reused. We've got some that I've had for about 5 or 6 years now and they're still going strong. I also use reusable wipes in the bathroom instead of make up wipes like those cotton pads. I've got a reusable cotton swab that I have. If you don't want to use a reusable one, there are wood options available. It's still also how you dispose of items as well as what those items are. Toothpaste. I use toothpaste tabs and they are such a simple swap. There are quite a few brands out there and I've actually tested quite a few options and I've got my very strong opinion on which ones I prefer. I just think they're so handy and it's so easy to then go traveling with a bar of soap and some toothpaste tablets.

I don't have to worry about whether my bag is going to be binged up because it's all solid stuff and it's all stuff that I can use and it's not very heavy soap, so simple soap. And then I'm actually that person that I have a travel bidet. Yeah, we currently rent, but I was living in my own place. We would have we'd have one installed on our toilet because it saves so much on toilet paper and it also is a lot better for you. But I know that there's a lot of people that find it really weird.

Rachel: 00:18:38

Yeah, no, I've had conversations with people that I work with at university about this and it's one of the things that's on our wishlist at the moment is to get a toilet installed. That way we just use bottles, squirty bottles. At the moment it's very portable, but yeah, people get really funny about talking about anything that involves, I don't know, cleansing yourself. I guess it's a polite way of saying it, but yeah, we should just have those conversations.

Cathy: 00:19:05

Yeah, I find it really funny because it's so much cleaner and I think I saw that. I've seen these videos and I'm going to do my own one of it where you end up putting a piece of dirt on your arm. And it's one of those things of when you've got dirt on you, you wash it off. You don't just wipe it off because it stays there. And it's that same mindset for washing your bum. Yeah, but I have to say as a mum, the other things that I do sorry, I'm looking around because I've actually got it. My, my, my the room that I'm in crowded is I make my own cleaning solutions that are safe for dogs and safe for people, obviously. And I also with my young baby, we use reusable nappies which have saved a fortune, absolute fortune and then reusable wipes as well. And my own solution for those reusable wipes, which again, it just saves so much money. Yes, there is some washing involved, but we wash maybe every other day with a baby that's eating.

He's learning how to. Eat at the moment, so it gets messy. But my husband and I, we probably wash our own clothes maybe once a month actually, at this rate, because we just don't use them enough and we do the sniff test. But there's just so many options. And what I would recommend to anybody, if they're starting out on this journey or they're trying to continue it, is to do a bit of an audit, take a step back. Don't just buy something just for the sake of buying it because you think that it's going to help or it's going to solve a problem. You need to understand what that problem is and actually maybe start from room to room. So focus on the kitchen. Do these small steps change those reusable wipes, Give that a go for a moment. Then maybe it's going to be a case of changing the washing up liquid that you use or the scrub that you end up using. There's a fantastic person in the UK who makes her own scrubs, which have got these really fun patterns and designs on and they're home compostable and she's tested them and everything.

They brighten up the kitchen. That might be a great gift to give to somebody. I could talk for hours on all of these options, so I'm going to stop.

Rachel: 00:21:07

I could join in and do the same with you. Yeah. I'm curious about the two other things that you're involved in. So helping Hands Environmental and the Ambassador work with Women's Environmental Network. So how did you get involved with both of those?

Cathy: 00:21:22

I got involved with Women's Environmental Network first. I went to a plastic free period talk that they end up doing. They do a thing called Environmental Week in October every year. They've been doing it for the last five or so years. And I saw it realize that it's a really amazing thing to to swap to plastic free periods, not only for your body, for the health of the planet, but also the wallet. And basically, as I said, I go down rabbit hole after rabbit hole and I decide that I then need to know everything about it. And as a result of knowing everything about it, I like to then educate others about it to try and make it easier for other people so they don't have to go down all these rabbit holes and that's basically what happened.

Covid had then hit, so it was: 2020

It was one of the best gifts I've ever received, and it happened to be from a helping hand environmental. And it's one of the best litter pickers that I've used. I'm not being biased, but there's different versions. And in America I've actually found that they're different shapes as a general rule, it seems. But I personally prefer the main shape that I use from helping hand environmental. Anyway, I approached them with the book idea and to see if I could collaborate with them and they are just so open and so helpful and supportive that they took me in with open arms and they support the work that I do. And then it turned out that they wanted to launch an ambassador program, which they've recently done. And they asked me as one of the I think there's 150 of us who are just talking about helping hand environmental and the work that they end up doing and the projects that they end up doing, which is these litter picks because they are so community focused. Yeah, I could rave about both of these charities.

So they're not charities, are they?

Both NGOs maybe? Well, not for propping.

Hand as a business, but they have this community aspect and community hub for it. But yes, Women's Environmental Network and I hadn't heard of Women's Environmental Network before and there's so many people that haven't.

Rachel: 00:24:20

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I think I've only come across them before. I was doing research for the questions for your podcast probably a handful of times. They don't seem to be I don't know why they're not, to be honest. It's a shame, isn't it?

Cathy: 00:24:33

Yeah, they just do. They do so much good work. So the toxic shock syndrome warning on period products, tampon products, that was brought about in like the late 1980s by campaigning from Women's Environmental Network with a couple of other companies, I had no idea until I'd done the research on the company that they had that big of a campaign impact and they still continuously do it. Sorry.

Rachel: 00:25:00

Yeah. No, no, that was fantastic.

Absolutely. Just curious if you've got any tips for litter picking with children.

Cathy: 00:25:08

Yes, make it fun. I actually created something called Litter Bingo where you get a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, it's online and basically you just try and cross off the items that you end up seeing and finding, and there's always something really random, so just make it into a fun activity. What I have found is that a lot of children actually are quite aware of the litter around them. The other thing that I would suggest is to have a litter picker if you can, purely because it helps getting into places that are a little bit harder to get into. Plus, it does mean that it is a little bit safer. There are some things that are on the ground that as much as we would love them not to be there, they are there, such as needles and other things that aren't particularly great. So I would recommend having a litter picker for that perspective and gloves and hand sanitizer with you, but at the end of the day, just have fun while still doing it and go to a space that you both enjoy or that you all enjoy going on for a walk.

So you're actually cleaning it and having an impact on a favourite spot. And yeah, so the challenge, if you can pick the most rubbish, who can pick the most of one particular item, go for it. Have fun. Yeah.

Rachel: 00:26:16

My daughter at the age of four asked for a litter picker. We were a bit taken aback and it was something that she'd done at preschool, I think, and it obviously sparked her imagination. It was like, okay then, yeah, we'll get you a litter picker.

Cathy: 00:26:26

Schools are fantastic.

Rachel: 00:26:28

Cathy: 00:26:39

That's a good question.

Rachel: 00:26:41

You were you were telling me that you're you're working or you've ready to publish your second book. Is that correct?

Cathy: 00:26:47

I have written a second book. I've actually written a few more books, but I need to sell the first one in order to raise the funds for the second one.

Cathy: 00:26:56

The love and the joy of being a self-published author is obviously trying to figure out the funds, but what I'm doing at the moment is focusing on creating more lesson plans, more activities, more missions that I am making available on my website for children and families to get involved in. And I'm also focusing on like doing the podcast that I work on and just trying to share these tips with people. The book that I have, I'm just going to show it are the Eco Protection Squad Go to the park. It actually has at the very end, Danny's do good tips, so Danny's do good tips, which are basically some easy ways for people to join in with helping to save terror from those pesky eco squashes. And it's even got things such as just simply share knowledge with friends and family and do what your daughter did, which is come back home, say that you want to do some litter picking. I'd like to be able to branch out to schools and do online conversations with them and set challenges. I've done that a couple of times and I find that really fun.

So I think there's a lot that I'm trying to do. I just need to get there. Yeah.

Rachel: 00:28:05

You mentioned that you're looking for support with one of your projects so that you can get your books out in the world. Whereabouts was the was this taking place in Cameroon?

Cathy: 00:28:17

So in Cameroon, in Africa, there is somebody who has reached out to me who would like to get some copies of my books. So I'm trying to sell them at a discounted rate and I just need help to pay for them and to pay for postage in order to get them over there. My aim is to just get 25 books. If I can get more, then that would be incredible. But 25 books to be able to send out over there.

Rachel: 00:28:42

That sounds brilliant. It sounds such a really great thing to do as well to support children across the globe. Really? Yeah.

Cathy: 00:28:48

And the characters that I've got, I think speaks to different cultures and different people as well. And the aim is to be able to in different countries to be able to just tweak some of the information and terminology to actually be more reflective of that country.

So at the moment it's heavily influenced by the UK and also the US because I now live in the US, but I do try and make it as generic and as easily accessible in different countries to be able to work on those countries.

Rachel: 00:29:18

Yeah. So where can we find you? Online or maybe even in person?

Cathy: 00:29:24

In person? I am in a place called Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Very random. Only in America online. It's simply sustainable ideas. So simply sustainable ideas and eco protection squad. Com If you just search eco protection squad it's the only thing that really comes up. And I'm also on Instagram following both those handles. You can find all of that information on my website. You can also contact me through Instagram or there's email addresses there as well and very accessible and happy to have lots of conversations with anybody about anything to do with the environment.

Rachel: 00:30:01

Thank you so much, Cathy. It's just been such a pleasure talking to you today and I wish you all the luck with all of the wonderful projects that you're involved in.

Cathy: 00:30:10

Thank you. I really appreciate it. And it's been smashing chatting to you as well.

Rachel: 00:30:14

Thank you.

Helena Outro: 00:30:18

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