On Saturday afternoon, senior Emma Gee stops by a Sprouts Farmers Market to buy fresh produce and berries. When the cashier at the checkout offers her a plastic bag, she instead pulls out her own bag.

Gee said she has always cared about building eco-friendly habits, including using reusable bags and water bottles and turning off the lights when leaving a room.

“I help the environment by using my own bags instead of plastic bags at the grocery store because it helps reduce waste,” Gee said.

And while Gee is already doing her part, the rest of the state will have to follow suit starting in January of 2026. That’s when California SB 1053 goes into effect and will prohibit most grocery stores, retail stores with pharmacies, convenience stores, food marts and liquor stores from giving customers single-use plastic carryout bags.

AP Environmental Science teacher Nicole Loomis, reducing waste like this as well as recycling consistently helps conserve environmental resources.

“Recycling specifically means that we don’t have to dig things out of the ground as much so it helps protect habitats and reduce pollution,” Loomis said.

Loomis said another environmentally harmful practice is food waste.

“If you waste food, you are utilizing those resources for nothing, and then when they end up in landfill, you’re producing a bunch of methane, which all of those have contributed to climate change,” Loomis said.

Food waste accounts for an estimated 58% of the methane escaping from municipal solid waste landfills. It contributes more methane emissions to landfills than any other substance because of its rapid rate of decomposition.

While some students protect the environment through small, everyday habits, others raise awareness in an attempt to instill those actions in Paly.

Senior Nathan Lee said he founded the Paly Environmental Club to get young people involved in volunteering.

“I created it last year with a couple friends,” Lee said. “We were in AP environment science and learned a lot. I do work with scouting and grassroots ecology, did an Eagle Project rebuilding garden beds and built strong relations with local environmental groups. I thought it was a great opportunity, especially with climate change being so important, to create a club to talk about it and teach others, learning important things about climate change and how we can mitigate it.”

The club recently participated in service events with Grassroots Ecology, a local nonprofit dedicated to caring for public lands and waters. Lee said he has noticed changes in students’ perspectives after participating in environmental service work.

“When we talk about these things, you can tell they’re a little bit more mindful,” Lee said. “When they deal with their trash, they think about it for a little bit.’”

And Lee said he and his club can do even more.

“We’re planning to do more stuff relating to Paly, trash and waste, because we know that all of our waste, whether it’s compost (or) recycling, all goes to the trash,” Lee said.

Despite student awareness programs, Loomis said the Paly campus still has a long way to go.

“Last year, as Zero Waste champions, a role that different teachers take on each year to carry out projects improving waste management on campus, our APES students made sure every classroom had clearly labeled recycling and compost bins,” Loomis said. “Many students helped raise awareness through events and memes, but we didn’t see a significant difference.”

Still, Loomis said it’s important to consistently take action.

“I think it takes time, and the important thing is to carry these habits forward, actually do them and care enough to follow through,” Loomis said. “So it would be nice to see people put quite a small amount of energy into just separating, especially the food waste. ”

Loomis also said she hopes teaching students environmental science will create a ripple effect in the community and inspire small changes.

“I think climate change is the major challenge that’s facing us right now,” Loomis said. “So anything you can do to help reduce it is good, which means burn less fossil fuels.”

And Lee further said the key to fighting climate change is understanding it.

“The important thing is understanding the severity of climate change and that it’s our generation’s problem, because if we don’t fix it, it’s on us,” Lee said. “If people understand the issue, they can think, ‘This is serious. What can I do to help?’”

Lee also said he encourages students to create more eco-friendly habits.

“I’d say start small,” Lee said. “When you start something, you don’t want to go immediately to the master step, where you do everything, because that’s just not reasonable. No one’s going to be able to start and do everything perfectly, because you’d rather start small and build the habits. Like turning off the water if you’re not using it for a couple seconds. Start small, and you can build up and up.”