By The Sea Lecture Series

Join us after hours for a lecture series featuring local scientists, conservationists, and photographers with brews!

Unwrap The Waves

Loggerhead Marinelife Center's Unwrap the Wave Initiative allows for students and community members to get into the "spirit" of conservation by collecting their candy wrappers from Halloween and recycling them.

Campus Sustainability Initiative 2016 Accomplishments

Last year, in an effort to reduce waste on campus and increase awareness of responsible practices, we established LMC’s Campus Sustainability Initiative. You may have noticed a few changes around the center and we are excited for much more progress in 2017.

2016 accomplishments include:

  • Providing reusable dishes for staff and volunteers. There are now plates, glasses and forks in the volunteer lounge for everyone’s use. We are encouraging staff and volunteers to avoid bringing single-use plastics to campus.
  • LMC staff and volunteers have made a commitment to only use reusable water bottles on campus and in the Turtle Yard. An LMC reusable water bottle is now available as part of the volunteer uniform.
  • Eliminating single-use plastic water bottles from turtle releases and campus events.
  • Composting on campus.
  • Unsubscribing from catalogs sent to LMC to reduce paper waste.
  • Purchasing wash cloths for the Juno Beach Pier Bait House to reduce the use of paper towels.
  • Updating the LMC Facility Rental Guide to include sustainability procedures for interested guests.
  • Reducing paperwork for Jr. Marine Biologist Summer Camp students and parents.
  • Planting the LMC Green Turtle Vegetable Garden. Our garden, located off campus, includes varieties of lettuce and green peppers. The garden was planted in November and the first harvest is just weeks away – an update on the garden will be coming soon!
  • Changing the plush sea turtles provided with LMC adoptions from turtles filled with plastic microbeads to turtles filled with non-plastic stuffing.
  • Eliminating individually wrapped candy from Turtleween and recycling over 60 pounds of Halloween candy wrappers from 20 local elementary schools. The wrappers were sent to TerraCycle and will be re-purposed into new items such as school and office supplies.
  • Providing reusable tablecloths at the LMC Volunteer Holiday Party.
  • Improving LMC retail sustainability by reducing products with excess packaging and selling reusable lunch boxes and containers.
  • Eliminating paper usage from Jr. Vet Labs and Birthday Parties on campus.
  • Replacing the campus water fountain with a water bottle refill station. So far, it has saved over 50,000 single-use water bottles.
  • Installing a bike rack on campus to encourage alternative transportation.
  • Initiating an electronic records system for the sea turtle patients in the hospital.
  • Saving digital press clippings rather than paper copies.
  • Eliminating paper forms for staff expenses.

closeup-of-pepper-plant

Below are a few tips for steps you can take both on campus and off to live more sustainably every day, along with a couple of companies we like.

On Campus

  • Bring your reusable water bottle
  • Ride a bicycle or carpool to LMC
  • Remember to turn off the lights when you leave the restroom
  • Ask LMC’s volunteers how you can help protect sea turtles and the marine environment by making small changes at home
  • Check out the new sustainable items in the LMC Gift Store

At Home & Work

  • Replace plastic food storage bags with reusable containers
  • Buy a lunch box
  • Carry a reusable coffee thermos
  • Unsubscribe from unwanted catalogs
  • Replace paper towels with wash cloths
  • Limit water and energy usage
  • Replace paper copies with digital files
  • Carry bamboo or other reusable utensils to eliminate the need for plastic ones
  • Carry a reusable take-out container to eliminate the need for polystyrene ones
  • Always bring your reusable grocery bags to the store

We are lucky to have a platform that allows us to speak to hundreds of thousands of guests every year.  We are striving to make Loggerhead Marinelife Center an example for our community and we can only do so with the help of our dedicated staff, volunteers, and visitors. Thank you for your efforts to share conservation messages and improve the health of our environment. We can only make a change together, it’s up to all of us.

dsc_0866 lmc-shirt-in-garden veronica-weedingtomatillo-closeup

If you have any questions, please email Demi at [email protected].

Scroll to Top