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