How a global movement started in a kitchen

[Music]

[Applause]

solving big

problems requires big changes

but how do we get there and what

difference can one person make

when we consider the overwhelming

challenges

facing our environment

i’d like to share with you the story of

plastic free july

it was a campaign that started here

in the very remote city of perth back in

2011

with a handful of people who decided to

make change

to reduce single-use plastic just small

changes in our daily lives such as

refusing shopping plastic shopping bags

finding alternatives to cling film and

switching to bar soap

these decisions led to the plastic free

july

challenge here’s the thing

about small changes when lots of people

come together and make small changes

all at once the impact can be

extraordinary

this year around the world 250 million

people joined us in plastic free july

and we made a difference together we

avoided

825 million

kilograms of plastic waste this is a

plastic waste that

went into a recycling bin this was

plastics that were never

purchased or used in the first place

so how did we get there and why did we

start

the answer is we didn’t really try

it began one day back in 2011

it was one night after dinner and i went

to put out the recycling

and as i did so i remembered what i’d

seen earlier that day

i was working at the time in local

government and we’d been to visit a

recycling facility

as i emptied my recycling into the bin

in my mind i pictured the mountain of

waste

i knew where it was going and i suddenly

realized that filling my recycling bin

each fortnight

though it was a good thing to do i

wasn’t really saving the planet

i went to work the next day and i said

to my colleagues

i’m going plastic free next month who

wants to join me

so together with amy and nibila and a

handful

of our passionate volunteers we just

gave it a go

and it wasn’t easy it opened our eyes as

we realized plastic was

everywhere we didn’t have all the

answers

but together we had some ideas

and this is how it started we just

shared ideas of what we did in our own

lives

such as remembering our reusable my son

having to carry the shopping

when we forgot the bag lining the bin

with newspaper

learning how to make almond milk and

this is my neighbor john

with his reusable produce bags it was

very homespun

it was grass roots we didn’t have a

budget and as you can tell the high-tech

nature of the iphone 3

the photos were pretty blurry

but we did it together and it took a

certain courage

particularly back then when people

weren’t really talking about this

the thing about making any changes is it

needs to become a habit so the more you

do it the easier it got

i remember the first time that i went

into a cafe and ordered a drink

without a plastic straw despite asking i

ended up with not one plastic straw but

two in my drink

but the thing is is that we weren’t

doing it alone

we were doing it in a really supportive

community

of people who were struggling with the

same challenges

and were finding ways to overcome them

people could really identify with this

challenge that became known as

plastic-free july

what we were asking was different for

different people

and people could choose the steps that

they were going to take

in their daily lives and people felt

good about it

about remembering their reusables

finding new places to shop going to

farmers markets and local independent

stores

and connecting with their community and

seeing their bins less full

people learnt new skills and started to

make

food from scratch to avoid plastic

packaging

there were flow-on effects too such as a

healthier diet that came along with

eating more fresh

local produce and it started

conversations

with friends and family and as we

shocked

and the scale quickly grew from a few

people

giving it a try to thousands of people

around the world

right now plastic pollution along with

climate change

and air pollution are the three

greatest areas of environmental concern

for

to communities around the world unlike

some other issues

it’s a very visual problem and there’s

no denying the source

it’s our plastic plastics are made from

fossil fuel

we’re producing them in ever increasing

amounts

half of roughly half of the plastic we

produce we use

just once and without adequate systems

to capture and manage our plastic waste

it has become symbolic

of our throwaway society

but one of the things about trying to

reduce your plastics

is that it really makes you think about

what you’re purchasing and using

where does it come from what’s it made

of

and what’s going to happen at the end of

it

plastic pollution may not be the most

urgent

environmental issue facing our planet

right now

but it’s a gateway for many people

taking steps to reduce their plastic

footprint

is the first step on a journey to

reducing

their carbon footprint and some people

took a few steps

they took it into their workplaces into

their schools into their communities

into their businesses and had those

conversations

we were always doing the challenge

ourselves

trying to learn how to make more choices

in our own lives

and sharing it in our communities so we

were part of this

as well plastic free july isn’t just a

campaign

that’s designed to reach ordinary people

it was made by ordinary people

we created online resources and tools

like these posters for people to

download

and because they were free for people to

use and everything was open source

it meant that they were very quickly

adapted

translated into other languages and

shared widely around the world

everything that we do we test

on the street because we wanted to make

sure our message is clear

and it speaks to everyone and it does

even the man that i interviewed who told

me

he was a self-confessed

anti-environmentalist

he said i’ll do this for the turtle

it’s not just about individual change

to solve this problem we need our system

to change

we need our governments to change and

take action

and business to take responsibility

but here’s the thing about big change

it’s got to start

somewhere and it often starts with an

individual

like the woman who took the plastic free

july challenge into her workplace and

shared it with her colleagues

at the same time their customers were

writing in

complaining about the amount of

single-use plastic used in the business

that workplace was air new zealand who

this year to mark plastic free july

announced that they were removing 55

million pieces of plastic

from their operations when we make

change

all together and we share stories

we start to create a new norm

those positive images

start to make become common and

the good behaviors become more visual

and visible and the negative behaviors

start to disappear once we do this

business and government starts to listen

and we can start to change the culture

the term single use went from being

a word that wasn’t even common back in

2011 when we started

to the word of the year in 2018

plastic free july has taught me a lot

i can’t begin to understand it or even

explain to you

how this small challenge with no

advertising budget

has grown from a handful of people to

250 million people around the world

in our team we refer to it as the magic

of plastic free july and the magic

looks a bit like this small

is beautiful do what you can

where you are

a lot of people making a few small

changes is more powerful

than a few people making lots of changes

be authentic and let our shared values

speak for themselves use

less stuff less

is more responsible less

is more rewarding and less is more

empowering

please join us and together we can turn

the tide

thank you

[Music]

you